EarthGang’s New Video Is For A Song That Prompted J. Cole To Sign Them

EarthGang’s Olu and WowGr8 were scorching hot throughout their 2019 campaign. The Dreamville duo were apart of some of the year’s best and most talked about projects, including J. Cole’s Rap menagerie, Revenge Of The Dreamers III. Recently, Cole and Ibrahim Hamad assisted with the drop of a Director’s Cut of the aforementioned project. Twelve tracks were added to the extended version, three of which were appended with EarthGang’s support. To boot, the MC’s also known as Johnny Venus (Olu) and Doctur Dot (WowGr8) released Mirrorland. Both R.O.T.D.3 and Mirrorland were featured on Ambrosia For Heads’ Top 15 Albums of 2019.

While Mirrorland and Revenge… are unique in and of themselves, one track from the Spillage Village twosome, “Swivel,” was featured on both projects. The record itself is particularly special to the group, as it was one of the first joints EarthGang played for J. Cole before signing to his Dreamville imprint in 2017. Late last year, E.G. performed an impassioned rendition of the forenamed single and their Mirrorland cut, “This Side,” for the “COLORS” video series. Today, Olu and WowGr8 indulge once again, swiveling back to transform their powerful single into a similarly emotive music video.

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The video opens at night, captured in stark black-and-white. The camera follows as four kids bike down a dimly lit street before veering off course into a dark, fog drenched forest. Engulfed by veteran producer Bink!’s ominous production, EarthGang’s WowGr8 rhymes with a similar gloom and a promise for survival. He spits, “Ni**a, keep your head on a swivel / Trouble lurkin’ ’round the corner / Run up on you any minute, you’ll be gone / I know ni**as dead out of desperation / R.I.P. my ni**a Alan, damn, I wish you would’ve stayed at home / Learned to make the best out of sh*tty situation / No complaining, no more Xan’, I leave the medicine alone / Dog, I swear to God that I’m changing for the better / F*ck whoever got the nerve to try to tell me that I’m wrong.”

As they continue into the woods, the foursome approaches a dark figure crouched down in the brush. With WowGr8’s prose further animating the scene, the group quickly realizes that they have come upon a grisly murder taking place before them. While three of the children escape to a nearby lot, one child remains, stunned by fear as the dark, knife wielding figure slowly draws near. After the three survivors discuss what to do about their friend, the sole female of the group decides to double back to help despite a broken arm.

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When the young girl finally arrives, she notices her friend’s bike toppled over with blood painting the leaves in the immediate area. In a panic, she flees, heading home to grab her backpack and a gun in an attempt to handle the situation on her own. As she heads back once again, the girl comes upon yet another murder, this time in the streets. After she peers into the shot-up vehicle, she continues on biking quickly into the night.

To couple the grim imagery, Johnny Venus steps in to offer a horror story of his own. The Atlanta product rhymes, “Sh*t around my block where we used to knock Couple souls fly, wasn’t nothin’ like you guys, what y’all on / Sh*t, it wasn’t nice, wasn’t paradise / Wasn’t lights back to back to back, many nights was on our own / Mama had to work, papa had three jobs / No, we not Jamaican, my sir, but we all was robbed, hah / Should’ve kept my head on a weave and bob / I’d rather be dead than to weep and sob / So we solve any major prob with the quick resolve / Had to squab’, circle that b*tch up, feelings get involved / Neighborhood on lock, f*ck we need a cop? / That was way back way ‘fore Reagan passed the rock / Left us with a needle and a jump shot / Leave you countin’ seconds on the fingers through the gunshots.” Last year, J.I.D. riffed on the film adaptation to Stephen King’s Misery for his “151 Rum” visual.

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Heads can now catch EarthGang in a city near you as they continue to embark on their Welcome To Mirrorland Tour.

#BonusBeat: Dreamville’s “Revenge” Featuring Ari Lennox, Childish Major, EARTHGANG, Lute, Omen, & REASON: