Mentors & Muses | EARTHGANG

Courtesy of SATIN HEART

Words BEN TIBBITS

The new album from Atlanta hip-hop crusaders EARTHGANG is more than just a mercurial collection of eclectic cuts, and a characterful shift into a more liberal strand of creative ideology. It’s also a manifesto of their view of contemporary rap; it’s their Perfect Fantasy.

The duo—Olu aka Johnny Venus and WowGr8 aka DocturDot—have been making music in unison since their school days, and over the last decade or so have delivered an array of motley works. From early mixtapes and EPs, to their full-length’s Mirrorland (2019) and Ghetto Gods (2022), the Dreamville-signed pair have always been at the cusp of innovation, trailblazing the ensuing era of US rap. It’s an impending musical epoch that needs its key players to step up for now more than ever, given the scene’s current arguable plateauing.  

EARTHGANG’s new album searches for an answer to creative freedom and progression. It enlists a coterie of striking features—from Damon Albarn to Snoop Dogg, Little Dragon to T-Pain—and sees the twosome dive into the depths of sonic sub-scenes that before they’ve only touched at the surface. It’s a diverse and compelling work of flex and introspect merging verses, soaring soundscapes and rip-roaring collaboration.

To celebrate the release of the influential new album, Man About Town asked Olu and DocturDot to share some key figures—some Mentors & Muses—who have inspired them on their journey, and impacted their life and creativity in some measure.

Listen to Perfect Fantasy…

WowGr8

Number one, I gotta say my pops. My dad has always been like a super music nerd, a music enthusiast. He definitely put that bug in me to just love music. I watched him lead the choir when I was a kid and I didn't even know until I got older that he had his own pop and R&B music that he was making back in the 80s. His roommates were rappers too and he was really surrounding himself in music, so he lived a similar kind of path that I live. I was just able to take another step with it. I always have him in mind as an inspiration in my life.

From the new project, I gotta say Damon Albarn from Gorillaz super inspires me, man. Not only for the way he approaches music, like you can tell he takes it dead serious, but he is also having a great time and just having a lot of fun. The first rehearsal we had with him, he was very critical of us at rehearsal, but then through all the tour and performances, he was just free as a bird. With Damon, you can tell he is like the duality of what a real artist is and he just epitomizes that. He’s even inspired me to the point where I now want to venture into other things that I want to do. I’ve been so focused on my career in music, but talking to Damon, he was like telling me during backstage conversations, just do everything. That’s inspired me to want to do more and like get into the comic world, get into the comedy space, make other music outside of EarthGang. We had conversations where he would talk about Blur and then his solo career and then talk about his Gorillaz career. Like, man, he just has had so many careers, but like, why not though, you know? That's an inspiration.

Another inspiration is just the clock, like my whole life man. I feel like I got a super life. I'm lucky that I have such a cinematic story and the biopic is going to be epic whenever it comes out. My experiences growing up in Atlanta has been a muse. Queen Atlanta - the esoteric metaphysical presence that she is, has always, always permeated through my thoughts and my music and my art.

Last one is Marvin Gaye. He inspires me a lot. He is just a great musician. He was somebody who was so vulnerable in his music and so real. His music reflected what he was really dealing with and his experiences. A lot of people don't know that initially Marvin Gaye wasn't supposed to really even be the great Marvin Gaye, but he was always determined, always destined. At one point, Berry Gordy was telling him no, you’re not the guy, I want you on the drums, you stay back there making beats. He’s kind of like Kanye in that way and Kanye is another one for me. They were supposed to be just producers, but then they said, nah, we’re gonna do it all. So I got a lot of love and respect for that.

Courtesy of Emily Eizen

Olu 

It's crazy because our answers are kind of similar. I’ve definitely got to pick Damon too. And it is kind of the same things Doc was saying, he’s like so legendary, but he's such a down to earth person. He's the type of guy that you would go to the bar and just have a drink with. For him to have the illustrious career that he has and have done so much, but still put basic human connection at the top of his list… That’s very rare. Not even with just musicians or artists, but it is very rare with human beings to have human connection at the top of the list. And he’s fire, he’s just cold, you know? Talented, multi-instrumentalist, he takes his work seriously, and he loves what he does, but more than that, he loves the people he does it with.

Secondly, I'm gonna just say my whole bloodline, I got to shout out the whole ancestry bloodline. I got to shout out all the spirits that came before me and made it possible for me to be here right now. They inspire me to kind of just continue to do what I love to do and was born to do. There’s so many reasons we come to earth to do what we love and we have all of these stories and experiences that are stored in us that we get to express while we're here. So that's where a lot of my inspiration comes from.

I have to say humanity is my muse too, the human experience. I feel like people can be so inspirational. Even when you’re just walking down the street and you see like a father and son together, that can just snap you back to a moment in your life or in your past that then influences you to create a song or a sound.

Whitney Houston. Every time she opened her mouth, you could just feel the joy for life. There was just pure joy for life despite all of the things that she was going through, despite her upbringing, and everything else. Whatever was going on in her life, whenever she just opened her mouth, she could sing or speak life into other people, pure joy. You know what I'm saying? So Whitney Houston has always been inspiring to me.

Courtesy of SATIN HEART