The Atlanta duoEarthgangreleased their latest album,Perfect Fantasy,on Oct. 29.
A Tuesday.Ever since Beyonces self-titled album surprise-dropped in 2013, the music industry had designated Friday as album-release day.
Hence, the prevalence of Friday drops today.
Emily Eizen*
But Earthgang say theyre no longer interested in joining the bloated horde of pre-weekend drops.
Our thing isEarthgang vs. the Algorithm,and the algorithm is getting out of hand, man.
Its making people do all of these things on this platform for this reason, Olu says.
And its like, why is everybody being forced to make these same decisions?
Why not [drop on a Tuesday]?
We can drop music whenever we want.
Earthgang vs. the Algorithmis a series of projects meant to examine our thirst to placate the algorithm.
Perfect Fantasyis the culmination of their trilogy.
Those qualms take shape on Red Flag, where WowGr8 rhymes Second date, whats your bank account?
Red flag/Im like, why these the questions that we even fuckin ask?
The figurative setting of the project, developed by the groups brand-development studio, Satin Heart, is Tokyolanta.
Its where they filmed the video for the Williams-featured U Gotta.
The legendary producer joinsSnoop Dogg, Imagine Dragons, Gorillaz, and Cochise as prominentPerfect Fantasyfeatures.
We didnt want to come out of nowhere, drop a big project and then say [bye].
The way these streaming services [are], they cater more to singles.
But now people are like, I get it now.
Its getting people a chance to absorb it differently.
They were like, Oh no, whats going to happen?
The robots are coming.
Theyre going to replace all of us.
Theyre going to replace the producers.
How are we going to be able to work with it?
And then lastly isPerfect Fantasy,where you develop a symbiotic nature with computers and technology.
What was it like filming the U Gotta video?
It looked like yall were just in downtown Tokyo, having fun.
What were the vibes?WowGr8:It was a lot of fun.
Olu:Yeah, it literally was that.
[I said], We shooting this video.
When yall were filming, was it a bunch of people crowding around watching yall?WowGr8:Yes.
Olu:Definitely, bro.
WowGr8:We stuck out so much.
There definitely was a lot of people watching.
But a lot of people were watching the video being shot downtown the whole time.
We probably shot for 14 or 15 hours, too, so its all day throughout different parts.
They got five or six Times Square-looking corners, so we just hitting multiple of those.
We doing the go-kart, we doing everything, and partied afterward.
It was a long day.
I would say a lot of it was recorded in Atlanta.
A great deal of it was recorded in the pandemic.
These are some real deep pandemic thoughts, especially Red Flag and songs like that.
In general respect, human respect, human decency.
I had a lot of that.
And thats a big thing that we experienced a lot in Japan.
The way people treat each other is generally pretty decent over there.
Why am I friends with this person?
Are we actually friends?
Have they called me during this time period?
Do we care about each other, or whats this all for?
We have a lot of different reasons to be friends in the world today.
We got social media, and people do stuff for clout and business advancements and yada yada yada.
And so I had to consider all those things.
The girls I was dating: Why do I bring this chick around?
Do I like her?
Do I really care about her as a person?
Does she care about me as a person?
And I think all of that is reflected in the project too.
Like I said, Red Flag is a big song that addresses those things.
Olu:Definitely the relationships for sure.
And like you said, the intention.
Why do we want to connect?
Are we connecting out of loneliness?
I feel like a lot of people was connecting out of loneliness during the pandemic.
Is this relationship helping you be a good person, or is this relationship adding to your life?
Is it adding value?
Its like, What are we doing?
Its easy [to see] a lot of people latching on just because they like what they see.
How collaborative are yall with the producers and instrumentalists you work with?WowGr8:Pretty active, bro.
Olu does a lot of the hands-on producing.
But you cant send me a beat and we just rap on it.
You got to carve out space for your voice to shine.
You got to put a spotlight on yourself.
Arranging music is fun.
Weve made stuff that I probably wouldnt have made anywhere else.
What conversation were yall having right before the beat start playing?
Are yall cooking up sounds?
Are yall going through samples?
What were yall talking about?
What was the mood of the day?
He did Electric, and he did Red Flag too.
Completely opposite [sounding] songs, but he did both of those in one day.
We did Electric on acid.
We was playing video games, and we made a crazy acid video-game song.
We had nothing in our system.
He put on a rainy-jot down beat, and thats how we started working.
So it was around 2022.
We went down to Miami.
Thats our first time meeting Pharrell.
Honestly, we wanted to meet him.
I didnt know he was going to be recording right then, which Im glad he was.
We made a lot.
We started a lot of ideas with him there.
But that was a great session.
Pharrell had this cocktail drink that he was making, this tequila purple-lemonade thing.
So we all sipping and looking at the water; it was real.
We all chilling, vibing, and got to talk for a while.
And then we also were taking B12 vitamins at the same time.
So we healthy and getting a little tipsy.
And then we made that record.
I know Pharrell is inspirational and motivational in a lot of ways.
People always ask, What he say to you?
It was like a dream come true, a kid in a candy store.
Olu:He set the space.
WowGr8:I didnt hear Chad say more than a yes or a no to an idea.
But he was locked in the music, though.
How did Love You More come together?WowGr8:T-Pain, man.
Pain is one of the most professional artists weve ever had the pleasure to work with.
Hes never turned us down on a feature.
Hes never took a long time to do it.
With that song in particular, he let us have it after we collaborated with him on it.
Well put it on there.
And then even with that, we had to make some last-minute changes to it.
He made the changes right away.
So it got me thinking about alternate possibilities, and then one line after another.
Just, What if life was like this?
And I was watching a lot ofFrench Dispatch.That was in 2021.
I was watching that movie a lot, and those worlds blended together with that beat.
Shout out to Amarah.
I love that song.
That song got me out a real place of …
There is a specific line in the song: Im mad smart.
Id be better off happy and dumb.
All the time, bro.
Ill be like, dang.
They say ignorance is bliss.
That is not a lie, bro.
That is a hundred percent facts.
Sometimes, knowledge and information are a burden.
We have all that.
Olu:Too much.
I think sometimes you’ve got the option to be envious of a person who knows less.
Theres nothing wrong with that.
And you dont know that they know less.
And I think weve seen it more among people because of the age we living.
How did Perfect Fantasy come together with Snoop?WowGr8:Thats probably the oldest song on the album.
That was the demo I was doing with my boy Dish.
They also produced Blacklight, but Dish and I became really good friends in 2019 and 2020.
So through the pandemic, we was always cooking up.
We created the initial idea for it and made a bunch of different versions of it.
And that was with some horns.
We was really into making period songs.
And we continued that for a month.
And that was one that felt good when you listened back later.
So we ended up sending it to Snoop, and he rapped so good on that song.
And I remember KP was like, Man, Snoop, walk the dog on yall.
I was like, Yeah, bro, lets keep it, bro.
I love to see Snoop in his bag.
So that was an excellent experience, man.
We met Snoop years ago.
He always been cool, always been obviously an idol.
We grew up listening to him.
But, yeah, that was great.
What was it like doing this project independently?
One thing I would say is we was definitely left alone to do this.
Nobody was bothering us the whole time.
We didnt have to go through a whole lot of red tape and stuff.
So that was an enjoyable part.
WowGr8:It was a pretty free-flowing process.
In general, how do you feel about where your careers are at?Olu:Yeah.
I dont want to do hindsight or what ifs or none of that stuff.
Weve been creating a lot of music.
We have a huge catalog.
We have a track record where our fans know that we give quality music, quality experiences.
Our slogan is Find your Way.
We use our inner compass or moral compass to help people navigate their journey.
Its like, man.
Sometimes in life you all you got.
Were putting together some activations and stuff.
