EarthGang makes otherworldly hip hop rooted in reality

In an East London hotel room strewn with clothes and suitcases, EarthGang’s Johnny Venus is sitting on an unmade bed, plucking at an acoustic guitar.

“I’m still learning,” he quickly clarifies, his dreadlocks wrapped in a white towel, a pair of white motorcycle boots at his feet. “I play the drums.” Alongside him, the other half of the group, Doctur Dot, is scrolling on his phone, eyes fixed on the screen. (He plays the trumpet.)

Despite plenty of competition, EarthGang has become one of the most original outfits to emerge from Atlanta in the last decade.

Fluctuating between hard rap and yelpy melodies, their music takes the city’s trappy aesthetic in an electrifying new direction, blending old-soul musicality with socio-political awareness. It’s an approach that has drawn comparisons to fellow ATLiens Outkast which, though lazy, isn’t unreasonable either.

Doc (born ‘Eian Undrai Parker’) and Venus (‘Olu O. Fann’) first met in ninth grade, where a shared love of crate-digging kick-started a friendship. “We used to swap records at high school,” says Doc, who, at 28, is a year younger than Venus.

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