Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and SURF GANG release their double album POMPEII // UTILITY via 10k/Tan Cressida/SURF GANG Records. A long-rumored, coveted collaboration between two friends who happen to be two of the most critically celebrated rappers in the game and renowned producer collective SURF GANG, the double album is a capstone on the musical community they’ve cultivated over the last decade. From top to bottom, there was a clear concerted effort to keep every angle of the project within the family. All of the art for this project, from single covers to the album cover, is pulled from work by sculptor and Earl Sweatshirt’s childhood friend, Sharif Farrag. LISTEN HERE.

Over the past week, Earl, MIKE, and SURF GANG have shut down intimate venues in LA, New York City and London for three secret shows they unveiled via a scavenger hunt on their website last month. Later next month, MIKE and Earl will also be playing a series of Australian and New Zealand tour dates in May, including a show at Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE Festival. Tickets are on sale HERE, with support on select dates from C.FRIM and Chef Chung. Following that, the official Home on the Range tour kicks off in June, which includes 26 US stops beginning June 9th in Riverside, before taking it overseas to Europe.

Structured as a double-sided album with MIKE on one side (POMPEII) and Earl on the other (UTILITY), SURF GANG’s Harrison, evilgiane, Elipropperr, and Flea Diamonds lace an animated and frenetic framework through the project with their production, resulting in a full-circle collision of worlds that was inevitable. POMPEII // UTILITY translates those nuanced differences between MIKE, Earl & SURF GANG into a singular language of their own, evoking a shared ethos of collaboration and community-building rather than a transactional exercise. The producer collective’s distinctly online, manic song structures give MIKE & Earl a new opportunity to fold their shared propensity for coded, meditative verses into the larger community they’ve built through their friendship since MIKE first caught the world’s, and Earl’s, attention in 2016, ahead of his cult classic 2017 album MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE. In the years since, the pair have tallied notable collaborations like ‘allstar’ on MIKE’s 2020 album weight of the world, and ‘Sentry’ on Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist’s collab album VOIR DIRE.