2019 has been Dreamville’s most successful year. The compilation album, Revenge Of The Dreamers III was the label’s first number 1 album that wasn’t a J. Cole album. In my review of the album, I mentioned that it was the first Revenge Of The Dreamers to include their latest signees, JID and EARTHGANG. JID made noise in 2017 with his album The Never Story and released some other music that I haven’t listened to because I’m not a fan of his music but EARTHGANG have been making noise on their own. Their major label debut, Mirrorland is far from their first project though. Their pre-Dreamville albums, Shallow Graves For Toys and Strays With Rabies aren’t bad projects but didn’t completely interest me. I first heard of them after they signed with Dreamville and independently released three EPs: Rags, Robots and Royalty which were all very good projects but it seemed that they were holding back their best material for their Dreamville debut which they absolutely were. The duo, consisting of members Olu & WowGr8 are easily the quirkiest act that Dreamville has signed (they seemed to have changed their names from Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot). They definitely have their own signature style but you can tell who their influences are. I can hear influence from The Pharcyde, OutKast and Young Thug throughout their catalog. Their Young Thug influence is especially apparent on this album because they have a song with him. That song, Proud Of U, is fantastic and I will 100% be playing it at my graduation party. EARTHGANG are unapologetically themselves on Mirrorland, which is easily their best work to date and their versatility is awesome. It’s cool to think that UP and Swivel are done by the same duo. What sets this album apart from their first two albums and the EP trilogy is that their production choices are less dry than they used to be and the songwriting plus the different sounds make this album much more enjoyable. This can be heard from the jump on the intro, LaLa Challenge. The second single from this album, UP, is probably the hardest song EARTHGANG have ever made. This song sounds exactly like the banger that would get people dancing around a fire, which is what the single’s cover art is. Top Down might just be my favorite EARTHGANG song. The hook on the album is fantastic and so fun to sing along to and the hooks throughout this album are their best. Olu & WowGr8 complement each other very well and they have their own times to shine. Olu’s dynamic range of cadences is shown on tracks like UP, Bank and Wings. WowGr8′s show stealing moments are on Swivel, This Side and Blue Moon. Swivel sounds much better on Mirrorland than it did on Revenge Of The Dreamers III and I wish it didn’t end up on that album but I can’t complain because the point of the Revenge Of The Dreamers albums are to preview tracks from the upcoming Dreamville releases. As mentioned before, Young Thug kills it on Proud Of U but T-Pain stole the show on Tequila. Kehlani made the song Trippin her own. I don’t know who Malik is but his verse stood out on Fields. The second half of this album drags a little more because the production isn’t as good but some more of my favorite songs are toward the end. Blue Moon and Stuck are very fun songs and the song Wings was an amazing closer. That hook is just amazing and the beat bounces perfectly. Wings is one of those songs I’d love to hear at their live show and they did just announce a tour. Mirrorland is EARTHGANG’s best work.
Fav Tracks: LaLa Challenge, UP, Top Down, Proud Of U, Swivel, Blue Moon, Wings
