Spillage Village

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Lore & Background

The group was originally founded by Olu (aka Johnny Venus) and WowGr8 (aka Doctur Dot) of EarthGang, who recruited rapper JID to the group during their time at Hampton University. Brothers Hollywood JB and Jurdan Bryant joined the Spillage Village soon after. Doctur Dot and Johnny Venus approached JID after hearing his first mixtape around campus in 2010. The rest of the group also came into Spillage Village through connections including producer Hollywood JB, who met Doctur Dot at a block party and joined soon afterward. Their first mixtape as a collective, Bears Like This, was released independently on February 2, 2014. The mixtape was an exclusive project between the initial five members of Spillage Village, with no features by outside artists. Later in 2014, they announced that singer Mereba had joined the collective, along with 6lack who used to live at EarthGang’s house. A year later, Spillage Village followed up with their second mixtape, Bears Like This Too on July 6, 2015, including 6LACK and OG Maco.

In Their Own Story

On July 29, 2016, DJ Khaled’s ninth studio album, Major Key, included a track produced by Hollywood JB titled "Jermaine's Interlude" featuring J. Cole and EarthGang. The track originally came into being after Cole invited EarthGang and JID to his studio, and Hollywood JB played him the beat. The song was later released in full as a Spillage Village single called "Can't Call It" on November 8, 2016. Spillage Village released their third mixtape Bears Like This Too Much on December 2, 2016. It soon proved to be their breakout project as a collective. Outside of the Spillage Village initial five, the album featured only three outside artists: J. Cole, Bas, and Quentin Miller. Production was from a variety of contributors, including Mac Miller, Childish Major, J. Cole, and Hollywood JB. When describing the collective mixtapes, EarthGang said: "It's the third part to the saga. We use these 'Bears' projects like checkpoints, markers in time. The first one came out when we first started fucking around with these sounds. The second one came as niggas had toured a little bit, learned a little bit. At this point now, we've been on tours, we've got a lot of other things we've been working on." In 2017, it was announced that JID and EarthGang signed to Dreamville Records. JID, EarthGang, Mereba, 6lack, and Hollywood JB all made an appearance on the 2019 Dreamville compilation album Revenge of the Dreamers III. In March 2020, Spillage Village announced their fourth collective album. They also announced the addition of Benji to the group, who is the brother of producer Christo. Benji previously toured with EarthGang on the Welcome to Mirrorland tour, and was invited to work on the album in 2020. Spilligion was released on September 25, 2020, and was supported by three singles: "End of Daze", "Baptize", and "Hapi". The album features guest appearances from Ant Clemons, Ari Lennox, Buddy, Chance the Rapper, Masego, Lucky Daye, and Big Rube. The production was handled primarily by Olu, Benji, Christo, and Hollywood JB, among others.

Reader's Guide

Spillage Village incorporates many genres in their music such as neo soul and elements of southern hip hop. The collective has drawn comparisons to groups such as Dungeon Family, Soulquarians, Native Tongues, and Fugees with "combinations of diverse flows, trap rap, disembodied folk, jazz and ethereal vocals" that developed a sound of their own.

Did You Know?

• Spillage Village was founded by the members of EarthGang, Olu (Johnny Venus) and WowGr8 (Doctur Dot).
• Their first mixtape, Bears Like This, was released on February 2, 2014, with no outside features.
• JID was recruited to the group after EarthGang heard his first mixtape around Hampton University in 2010.
• The 2016 track "Jermaine's Interlude" on DJ Khaled's Major Key was produced by Hollywood JB and featured J. Cole and EarthGang.
• Spilligion (2020) included guest appearances from Chance the Rapper, Ari Lennox, and Masego.