In their native Atlanta, some people already consider EarthGang to be legends. Olu (aka Johnny Venus) and WowGr8 (aka Doctur Dot) have released several independent records and mixtapes across the last decade, offering a spaced-out mix of hope and helplessness. They have also played hundreds of shows in the States and abroad, opening up for the likes of Mac Miller, Billie Eilish, and J. Cole, who signed them to his Dreamville imprint in 2017. They are featured on five songs from the label’s new compilation, Revenge of the Dreamers III, which is set to enter the Billboard charts at No. 1 next week. WowGr8 says that, a few hours before we meet on a recent sunny Saturday in their hometown, he was stopped by a woman at Kroger who told him, “I’m raising my kids off EarthGang.”
And yet, the duo feel like they have a long way to go. “I ain’t even dropped my first album,” Olu says with a laugh, referring to EarthGang’s upcoming full-length major label debut, Mirrorland, due out later this year. Talking about the group’s ambitions, WowGr8 remembers how Mac Miller wasn’t able to go unrecognized while on tour. “That was just a huge perspective for me,” he says. “If you can’t go to the mall and shut that bitch down then you’re not that big.” When I ask if they still consider themselves to be a rising act, WowGr8 says, “If you not rising, what the hell are you doing?” Olu agrees: “I’m going to be rising my whole life.”
The pair are sitting at Local Green, a healthy restaurant located minutes away from Olu’s home in Atlanta’s historically black West End neighborhood. The eatery is one of their favorite restaurants in the area, offering vegan meals with names that likely appeal to longtime residents and hipster newcomers in the rapidly gentrifying area. Among other items, there’s the “Rappers Delight” Salmon Vegan Cheese Philly and the “3 Stack” Cauliflower Taco, a nod to Andre 3000 of OutKast, a duo that drew the blueprint for free-thinking hip-hop acts like EarthGang to create music that is both hyperlocal and otherworldly.
Though they’ve only been off the road for less than a week, both Olu, 29, in shorts, white socks that reach his calves, and a T-shirt, and WowGr8, 28, wearing a leopard print shirt and black sweatpants (and inexplicably carrying around a ukulele), are already excited to head back on tour. Looking around the restaurant, the rappers reflect on the changes that have happened in Atlanta while they’ve been traveling the world. Recently, Apache Cafe, an indie soul venue that everyone from India.Arie to Janelle Monáe to EarthGang once played, was forced to move because of rent increases. Learning the news, WowGr8 shakes his head: “I met my babymama at Apache.” “Damn!” Olu exclaims, “I feel like an old nigga. Things are happening that I ain’t got no control over.”
The men say they can’t help but worry about the future of the city that nurtured them. As lunch wraps up and the conversation grows quiet, Jennifer Lopez’s 2002 hit “Jenny From the Block” begins to play. “Jenny ain’t got no block no more,” Olu mumbles. “That shit’s gentrified.”
WowGr8 and Olu met and formed EarthGang while attending Mays High School in southwest Atlanta. They bonded over their disdain for the gifted classes they’d been placed into instead of the more exciting woodshop courses they wanted to take. “Why wouldn’t you want a person who is good at math and science to know how to build some shit?” WowGr8 says, still a little salty. “If you want niggas to build robots and change the future, then have them niggas do it.”
After both attended Hampton University in Virginia, they returned to Atlanta in 2013 and started to generate attention with their mixtape, Shallow Graves for Toys. A year later, they released Bears Like This under the name Spillage Village alongside J.I.D, a fellow Atlanta rapper they met while attending Hampton. Around this time, EarthGang performed at local venues around the city, meeting local artists like Young Thug, 6lack, Trinidad James, Key!, and more along the way, many of whom they still work with to this day. Released earlier this year, the Mirrorland single “Proud of U” finds the duo matching Thug warble for warble.
Easily EarthGang’s most cohesive project to date, Mirrorland seduces listeners into the eclectic world of these two Atlanta dreamers. This is most apparent on the bulbous funk of “Wings,” where Olu name-drops local landmarks including Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Interstate 85, and the Georgia Dome. “I’ve been living this way/Since my mom lost her daddy/Before Hartsfield was Jackson/Before 3 Stacks had the accent,” he raps. “I ain’t digging or dissing/Just emitting the facts.”
The album is a vivid ode to Southern black culture. Where the scratchy electric guitars in “Blue Moon” channel the region’s soul and blues lineage, “Trippin” pays homage to turn-of-the-century R&B acts like Ginuwine. Elsewhere, standout “La La Challenge” shows the duo’s restless curiosity as it twists and turns through Lil Wayne references, hip-hop minimalism, and an extended outro that brings to mind a fiery gospel service.
After lunch, we head to a park behind Shrine of the Black Madonna, a congregation of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church where Olu and his family have worshipped since he was a child; according to its website, the church was created as a space where black attendees could celebrate their “trans-generational legacy of struggle, faith, vision, and leadership.”
WowGr8’s family legacy isn’t too far away from Olu’s family church. At a nearby two-story brick studio owned by WowGr8’s older cousin, Big Oomp, a label executive behind local hits such as DJ Unk’s “Walk It Out,” we head up a narrow staircase surrounded by plaques into a room towards the back of the building. WowGr8 and his weed man spark up a blunt. Soon, the wide-ranging discussion starts to feel as thick as the vapors that fill the dark room. They talk about their fondness for fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, who, according to WowGr8, has “the hardest writing game right now,” before reflecting on the injustice of a recent string of anti-abortion measures that have sprung up throughout the country.
They go on to talk about how they’re bothered by their constant state of worry in America. Sitting in the studio, a restless Olu expresses a desire to move to Africa. He’s not sure which country yet but, wherever he goes, he says he’ll be gone before the end of the next presidential term. WowGr8 interjects. “Global warming gone take us out before y’all have to worry about it anyway.”
Even during this bleak detour, though, there’s a sense of calm. It’s clear to everyone in the room—and anyone who listens to EarthGang’s music—that Olu and WowGr8 can envision a rich, colorful world no matter where they are. And even as it continues to change, it’s hard to imagine a place that’s as perfect for them as Atlanta.
Olu: We a part of the LimeWire/Napster generation.
WowGr8: We downloaded all types of stuff. Pink Floyd. Soulja Boy. Led Zeppelin.
Olu: Beyoncé. The Neptunes.
WowGr8: The first couple of Fleet Foxes songs I ever downloaded was off that shit.
Olu: Fela Kuti. Prince. Sade. There was this app that I had where you could just click any country in the world and they'll just start a radio for that junk. That’s how I was listening to music.
Olu: I feel like an elephant mama. An elephant gestation period is around 18 months—I feel like I’ve been carrying this baby for a long time. So far, a lot of our shit’s just been through the words and music, but with this album, we’re definitely going to give everything a visual atmosphere.
Olu: The Wiz. We thought about how, if we’re going to make a project sonically to rival The Wiz, we got to create another world for people to imagine and go to. You know when Dorothy got swept away and she met the Munchkins? That was such a beautiful thing. You could see Quincy Jones on the piano, just playing away. That’s what “La La Challenge” is about. Right now, that’s the intro to the whole record. It’s really colorful. It’s really dangerous. It’s really trippy. It’s literally Freaknik Atlanta in the summertime—folks riding around in cars with big rims with paint on their faces.
Olu: It’s the same thing. Atlanta is the Land of Oz. It’s black people just being unafraid and unapologetically creative. Just running around being themselves.
Olu: Part of our brand is freedom, so we’ve been spreading awareness and just holding natural conversations with people. The government should just understand the woman’s perspective and what they go through and let women decide. Women aren’t telling me I need to get a vasectomy, and I’m not going to tell them what to do either.
Olu: Soon we’re going to be shooting a pilot for a travel show that’s meant to unite people from all over the world. People from Atlanta who like to go to the strip clubs have something in common with folks in Japan who like anime comics and high fashion. It’s bridging different cultures, ’cause we all the same. We all like sex. We all like art. We all like love. We’re going to be connecting cultures through our music and through our crazy antics. We’re EarthGang. That’s what we do.