One time I wore my very primitive, now incredibly rare, EARTHGANG shirt around my mother and she asked me if the group in question was into botany. Technically speaking, yes. It wouldn’t be fully extrapolated on until years later when I finally revealed my own affinity with marijuana or that time I went to Colorado and filmed a reality tv pilot, but that’s neither here nor there.
But how does one truly explain what EarthGang is about if they weren’t there from those very early days? Even I wasn’t there for its birth. Understanding those humble beginnings is essential to knowing how far they’ve come. With their signing to Dreamville and distribution from Empire and a feature on Donald Glover’s Atlanta, I suppose they shouldn’t be considered “off the radar” for too much longer. I won’t go super Stan and yell about the good old days when the small fan base took pride in tweeting mixtape links at 2DopeBoyz, Consequence of Sound or even demanding to know why they were snubbed from the XXL Freshman List.
Perhaps one of the greatest subtle advancements in their artistry is the way each project has been organized along the way. From The Better Party all the way up to where we find ourselves now awaiting their album Mirror Land, minus the terrible mastering on the older tracks, they still hold up
to this day.
Long before I had ever heard of Johnny Venus or Doctur Diego Dot, the still adolescent duo joined forces after a field trip in the 9th grade. Their affinity for similar music brought them together to form EarthGang. It was at Benjamin Elijah Mays High School graduation where they first performed their eponymous track “BOOM (EG ROCK).” They both headed to Virginia to attend Hampton University that fall.
In early 2010 the pair released their first mixtape called The Better Party, which featured the track from their iconic debut performance. I received this particular project from a professor who happened to be a fan of the duo. A random grouping of songs ranging from odes to college women to the wrong side of a night out drinking. “Best Friends” encapsulates my freshmen year and sticks to the inside of my consciousness whenever I think about the peers I gained there. Its lack of focus stuck out feelers to see whether or not this artistic venture was worth it. At a time when I was also trying to figure out this life thing it was the perfect soundtrack. It also helped that they were pretty good.
EarthGang performing at Hampton University 2011
For anyone who’s been to college, there’s always an annoying alumnus around to tell you how their time at said institution was the best culturally. I would be remiss to leave out my own tale of how Hampton was literally stacked with hip-hop, nay musical talent just walking around eating in the cafe with you. But I would be wrong, because I wasn’t there for the James Hall Mixtapes and I have no idea the landscape further before me or even after me. You’ve just got to trust me when I say that it was a good time to be young and free and love hip hop music. Also watch this video of an early cypher, I’m not even sure those other guys still rap.
That same year is when they began touring and releasing videos. “Fire Kickin’ Tree Limbs” was the first of many to come, and we saw the whole crew in “God’s Pocket” long before the track officially dropped. They performed and won Hampton Idol before the prize was opening for the Homecoming performance. I recall fondly running around campus getting signatures for a petition to let them open up the show. Our fan base grew from a few hip hop heads at Hampton and those homegrown Atlanta fans to a few more hip-hop heads around the Internet and those who could see them perform at A3C. Not a bad first year of putting your art out there. Come 2011, there was a video for “Kick’n It” one that surprisingly has over 19,000 views, but didn’t quite show the creativity that was ahead.
They dropped Mad Men at the end of April featuring the song they had dropped the prior November. On it was an interlude called “Wayward Sons,” a conversation between the fictional characters; a deep southern matriarch and D. Industry. In it they place themselves next in line amongst those southern sons dominating the genre. Even back then they knew. It was this project that marked their first foray into crowd support via the Internet. Everyone posted the cover as their profile picture on various social media. It’s the only project thus far to feature their actual faces. Johnny still had braids, Doc had an Afro, and I for the record was still participating in the terrible phenomena known
as a relaxer.
In this time frame the label/family/crew, Spillage Village was birthed. There was more to it than just EarthGang of course. They brought along frequent collaborator J.I.D, producer extraordinaire Hollywood JB, and the quiet storm JordxnBryant. As far as rap crews go, it can surely hold its own with the best of them. Where others are overcrowded with half talent, Spillage Village shows that less is more at times.
Original Block Letter T-shirts
That was the year I accidentally won a t-shirt contest because I tweeted about them so much. It was a day or two after I had already paid for one, $10 was hard to beat. We were spoiled back then, we got another project that December, Good News. It’s a tape that I personally reference often, whether or not people know that’s where I’m sourcing the material is a different thing. There isn’t a time I’ve left my house without patting myself down and rapping “phone, keys, wallet, b*tch you betta stop it,” so insignificant but poignant to me. We’ll never know who first referred to a woman’s derrière as a wagon, but when I’m using the phrase I can hear the horseshoes from “That Wagon” clomping in the background of my brain.
On the outside things were on the up and up but a massive change was on the horizon. It was time to leave Virginia. It was also time to see if it was truly worth it to make this their life path. That answer wasn’t as cut and dry as a yes or no answer. Would it be feasible, how would they make money? Should they even keep the name EarthGang? What would they even change it to? At the crux of Odd Future’s rise, they and a few other musical acts all had the word “gang” in them. Thankfully they rounded up a few creatives and we discussed the matter, the name stuck.
A solitary single drop here and there, they didn’t drop another full-length project until 2013. What were they doing you might ask, honing their skills of performance and creation is my loose answer. After wrapping things up in Virginia they moved back to Atlanta and I was still in school. One of my first artist interviews was with them for The Hampton Script. Looking back they didn’t reveal much, an attitude they’ve kept up since, but I was a huge fan and just getting anything at all was enough for me.
It was on the Spillage Village imprint that they dropped their highly anticipated follow up project Shallow Graves For Toys. They dropped the psychedelic video for “16 Albinos in the S.W.A.T.S.” Fifteen tracks (16 if you count the bonus, which I do) it stands as their longest project to date. Though you shouldn’t be worried about how much is filler as they’ve avoided that problem time and time again.
Here the lazy Outkast comparisons really gained traction. At a time when Atlanta hip hop was transitioning from snap music to trap, any semblance of lyricism is automatically linked to the iconic duo. Any great rap duo could be swapped out as long as both members are equal talent wise. Their bond is as strong as Mobb Deep and UGK. They’ve managed to avoid the feuds that once divided EPMD and the group formerly known as The Throne. (Jay-Z and Kanye West.) It would be cool to get a movie out of them like How High. A better comparison might be to the still very underrated Rae Sremmurd as they continue to take the industry by storm.
Though comparison is the deepest form of flattery, you don’t need it to define EarthGang’s essence. And if you ask them about being compared to acts of old they’ll shrug it off. The gang’s formal response to the nonsense was found in their song and the accompanying video for “The F Bomb.” Kidnapping the same industry leaders they sat down with all the way back in 2011.
The first SpillHouse was born out of a need to have a centralized location for creation. Over time it grew to be more than music and a lot of familiar voices came through to contribute. 6lack and Marian Mereba being two particular standouts. Walking into the house on any particular day set aside for creating you might find someone painting. Even if only music is being made the process is often touched by those just passing through the rooms.
For those of us begging for new sounds from the crew, the Village dropped three compilation tapes featuring all of its members alongside OG Maco, Quentin Miller, Bas, 6lack, Marian, and J. Cole. Bears Like This, Bears Like This Too, and Bears Like This Too Much, all clock in around thirty minutes. Giving us just a small taste of what they were working on in the meantime. During this time we also got a couple of episodes of “SpillVill Radio” which featured mixes from DJ Dark Knight sprinkled with a few of the crews tunes.
In 2014 they got a call from Punch of TDE, it wasn’t a signing call as we now know, but an offer to fill a 15-minute slot opening up for Ab-Soul. There was no money involved, they even went into debt. They rocked those 15 minutes. My friends and I drove up to the concert sang every song then we drunkenly fell asleep in the bathroom. Like the venue was closed. If you ask me that short span of time was entirely worth the $75 Lyft we had to take home; and it was certainly worth them not getting paid.
Backstage at S.O.B.’s
Fans of the show Atlanta will recall when Earn’s character had Paperboi stay in an apartment while doing a show for free. Replace the shows gang with Olu, Eian, and a handful of others, only they had the slight upgrade of a van. They stayed in dorm rooms of fans on a few stops here and there. When the shows wrapped, they squeezed back into the van to drive off to the next one. Often forgoing the luxuries of a decent meal and a few times a warm shower. Honest straight to the grind mentalities.
Once their first trip around the country wrapped they dropped a second album on the Spillage Village imprint, Strays With Rabies. It was this project that gave us the matronly warning “Momma Told Me” and “Liquor Sto.” Directors Chad Tennies and Mac Grant elevated the sound experience
with their visuals.
While on tour with Mac Miller, the first tour they got paid for though only breaking even, they dropped the Torba EP. It featured J.I.D, Mac and a remix of “The F Bomb” featuring OG Maco. After that tour wrapped they found themselves back on the road with future label mate Bas for his
Too High To Riot tour.
On these tours is when their relationship began to develop with their eventual label head J. Cole. New York is where they first crossed paths, a technical issue with the set allowed EarthGang to show off their improvisation skills and performance prowess. He visited the first SpillHouse in Atlanta, they went to the famed North Carolina residence, it was very organic. Upon arriving to the Forest Hills Drive estate, they immediately hit the booth, just to set the tone for the trip.
The bars recorded that day went onto become “D/vision” from J.I.D’s debut The Never Story. Though never intended for any project at all, it just fit together. A song originally set for their long time collaborator’s debut, “Meditate,” ended up on the first of their three introductory EP’s and the “Woods” episode of Atlanta. That very tour with Bas brought them to Electric Ladyland Studios while J. Cole was working on For Your Eyez Only.
In a move I’m certain was just for longtime fans, they dropped the video for Bears Like This Too Much track “Voodoo.” It’s hilarious and shows off the weird thoughts going on in their brains. It’s a testament to what kind of art you can make when the support is there, but also a warning to all shady men and their dealings with women.
Longtime fans anticipated their signing to Dreamville, even more so once J.I.D was signed. They joined him on his Never Had Shit Tour across the United States and heading to Europe soon. They’ve performed at Made In America, Rolling Loud, and a handful of other festivals. Many see it as just the beginning, when it’s really just another major gain in a long journey. They’re really just having fun with it.
Before making their album debut, the pair decided to drop a trio of EP’s, most likely to serve as an introductory course. Through Rags and Robots and eventually Royalty you can hear them get more introspective. DC Youngfly is the perfect comedic relief in the skits. We got the poignant and political video for “Meditate” and a tale of temporary satisfaction in the video for title track “Robots.” Hopefully we get another video from the finale Royalty soon. If we all cross our fingers together it will increase our odds, trust me. While we’re at it we should also toss up some prayers that they release these EP’s on vinyl in a box set of colorful 45’s. A girl can dream right?
Over time Atlanta has transitioned from the jazzy funk tone that first drew national attention in the 1990’s. When EarthGang was first born the snap era was dying down a bit and moving onto the trap landscape that reigns today. All the while they’ve stuck to their old school guns. There is a place for all sorts of dissonance in music and they’ve taken up the mantle of lyricism in the peach state. You can hear the time and practice and work that goes into each project.
The overarching lesson to take away is the product of putting in the energy to make it. By any means necessary, if you will. We can’t say where Eian and Olu might find themselves if they had quit like some of the other voices on those James Hall Mixtapes. If they had changed their name, would it truly embody who they are? The “earth” portion of their name is certainly attributed to a love of marijuana and a few other drugs, for me combining it with “gang” makes them more relatable. Sure they’ve traversed the globe a bit more than your average person, but they’re still regular guys. Where their music peers have lost themselves in the magic of fame, the gang holds it down with those they started with.
People see the path to fame in the framework of idolizing the destination. With that view you miss out on the best part, the journey. I’ve never been famous, so I can’t accurately speak to how it feels once you arrive. However I can say the stories along the way are the ones that people grasp onto. We crave those behind the scenes tales that slip out of the mouths of people like Quincy Jones. Those stories of early struggle make an artist who they are. Knowing that EarthGang once used dorm room mattresses as insulation for a microphone helps you appreciate the way their music from back then has aged even more.
So far the group has been through hair growth and a few name changes. Eian started as Doctur Diego Dot, then shortened it to just Doctur Dot and now he is Wowgr8, according to his Instagram. They’ve upgraded from crowded vans to comfortable buses and world tours. The message is still spread via word of mouth but now it’s amplified with major label backing. Merchandise is more than just their namesake on the front of a screen-printed shirt. Things are certainly on the up and up, just don’t think they’re close to stopping.
I can’t say for sure what Mirrorland will bring, mostly because I don’t know anything, or do I? What I am certain of is the maturation will shine through. Every set back along the way and the triumph over it will be on display. EarthGang is on their way to solidifying their mark in the history of rap duos and now is a good time to hop on the bandwagon. If you’re an old fan like myself I recommend making a massive playlist of all their songs and hitting shuffle, hopefully the nostalgia won’t kill you. For the new crop, do your googles and find those old gems that await you in the depths of the internet.
“Damn these years is crazy,” Olu told me over a brief phone conversation. It’s truly amazing to see their progression from when I first encountered them until now. Who would’ve thought the kids rocking a show in the university’s ballroom would be touring around Europe. Of the dense landscape of rappers, would you have picked two weird kids from Atlanta? If you’ve been paying attention you can see why it works. Time and hard work into the craft and appreciation of their own ideas. Most of all it took a growing village of believers, one I hope you’ll join.