EARTHGANG: RAP DIVINITY

Earthgang is a band—a Hip Hop duo, to be more specific, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The artists formed in 2009 and started releasing music a little after that. Since then, they have continued to grow their fanbase all around the world. Today, they have 4.3 million monthly listeners on the music streaming platform Spotify. Thus, this feature simply focuses on these artists’ journeys and what has made their art special.

One recent accomplishment that this duo achieved was a track of theirs (which they worked and released alongside Rich Brian) was included in the official album for the blockbuster film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The track is titled Act Up.

Before they could reach this point and achieve this success, the band was simply two high school students who wanted to make music together. Thus, Earthgang is a band of two men named WowGr8 (aka Doctur Dot) and Olu (aka Johnny Venus). During their formation, they came up with the name Earthgang because they felt it represented the people—regular people that you interact with every day. Their lyrics within melodies and rhythms were representative of the voice of people, which would also, of course, be relatable to them.

The duo released their first EP in 2010 and have continued to release new music over the years. What has been interesting for fans is to see their evolution in terms of musicality and lyricism. Some of their more recent releases have been perhaps more intriguing than others, considering the shifts of rhythm and dynamics within each track, establishing more than one feel in a single song.

Undeniably, the fact that Earthgang is a duo also influences is that. While they may be creating music together, each artist has his own take on creative expression, and that can create varying experiences for listeners. What is remarkable is how these two find a balance to create a sound that comes together to feel authentic, poignant, and entertaining.

Despite the evolution of each artist and the duo as an entity, Earthgang has managed to stay true to the notion that they associated their music with: i.e., the voice of regular people. Therefore, even in their more recent works, for example, the album Spilligion was expressive of how people may have felt during the start of the pandemic, as the artists explain in an interview for Rolling Stones. The idea of that work was to establish a comfort in the uncertainty of things. On the other hand, their newest album, Ghetto Gods, which releases this February, is about how life is now. A track Strong Friends, for example, is something almost anyone can relate to—which is their friends and checking up on them. It, like the rest of the album, is simply about being honest with yourself and with others so that you feel unburdened and content with who you are.

Thus, Earthgang continues to give us listeners food for thought—even if it’s only to remind us of some of the good things we have in our lives.