Mirrorland

Atlanta duo and co-founders of the Spillage Village collective EarthGang established a stronger foothold on rap fans' consciousness with their series of EPs -- Rags, Robots, and Royalty -- released between 2017 and 2018 after signing on with J. Cole's Dreamville Records label. The material on these short projects expanded the duo's colorful and sometimes bizarre style and drew many comparisons to fellow "ATLiens" and the godfathers of risk-taking rap, OutKast. EarthGang's debut studio album, Mirrorland, pushes their sound to new unorthodox places, with instrumentals that flirt with jazz inflections, lo-fi production techniques, and outlandish inversions of trap beats. Rappers Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot break up their unhinged, nasal flows with moments of jubilant soul harmonies ("Top Down"), bounding upbeat acid jazz instrumentation ("Blue Moon"), darkly experimental beats ("Avenue"), and different approaches and coloring on almost every track. The list of featured guests on Mirrorland is small but impressive, with T-Pain, Young Thug, and Kehlani all adding to various standout tracks. ~ Fred Thomas