By: Todd “DG” Davis
Rapindustry.com

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Inglewood birthed them, the streets molded them, and the West Coast elevated them to untouchable. Binky Mack and Squeak Ru—Allfrumtha I—took ‘hood hustle, G-funk grooves, and unfiltered swagger and detonated it into a sound that still hits like a full-system bass drop.

From vibing with Westside Connection to dropping anthems like “County Jail” and “Fill My Cup (To Tha Rim),” they didn’t just put their city on the map—they immortalized it in hip-hop history.

Decades deep, the culture still rides, the crowds still scream, and the legacy? Certified. They just dropped The official first single ‘Connect Gang’ ft. K-Dee Gangsta off the upcoming AllFrumTha I Lost Tapes album.

Binky Mack and Squeak Ru, take it back to Inglewood—who were y’all before Allfrumtha I, and what kind of environment shaped the sound and attitude you brought to West Coast hip-hop?

Binky Mack: In the ‘hood—street-smart, hustlin’, always trying to figure out the next move. Having fun, baggin’, and laughin’. We bring all that to our sound. Now, with freedom and control of our music, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. We do it for love, not deadlines.

Squeak Ru: We were just two guys from the neighborhood trying to figure out life, dealing with the everyday realities of being Black men in America. The ups and downs in our community shaped us, and we put those stories into our music. That’s what built our sound and attitude.

The name Allfrumtha I always stood out—what does it really represent, and what was the meaning behind that identity when you first stepped into the game?

Binky Mack: It’s just the two of us in the group, but we represent the whole city. All Frum Tha I—Inglewood.

Squeak Ru: The name stands for all of Inglewood. That’s what we represent—the city and the people.

Your first big look came through Mack 10 and Hoo-Bangin’ Records—how did that connection come together, and what was it like being part of that Westside movement at its peak?

Binky Mack: Me and Mack were in 1st Amendment back in the early ’90s. After he linked with Cube, he came back and grabbed us. The Westside movement was—and still is—amazing. We’re still carrying the torch.

Squeak Ru: We weren’t actually on Hoo-Bangin’. We were on One Productions through Priority Records. The connection came from growing up in the same Inglewood neighborhood—the North Side. We’re just grateful to be part of hip-hop history.

You appeared on Westside Connection’s Bow Down during one of the most powerful moments in West Coast rap—what do you remember about recording “Hoo-Bangin’ (WSCG Style)” and being around Cube, WC, and Mack 10 during that era?

Binky Mack: It was a dope experience. When you’re around dopeness, it rubs off. That Cube-produced beat was one of my favorites. We had a blast recording it.

Squeak Ru: I didn’t realize how big it was going to be. Being around everyone felt like family. We already had a relationship with Mack, and Cube and Dub welcomed us in.

Before your debut album dropped, you were already on major soundtracks like The Substitute, Gang Related, and Thicker Than Water. How important were those early placements in building your buzz?

Binky Mack: Major. Anything you can do to build momentum helps. Imagine if we had social media back then—it would’ve been crazy.

Squeak Ru: Very important. We were building exposure, and Cube told us that by the time we dropped, the whole world should know who we are.

When the Allfrumtha I debut album dropped in 1998, it had that unmistakable Westside energy—what was the mindset in the studio when you were crafting that record?

Binky Mack: Just doing what we do. We’d been recording for years before that. The goal was to make even doper music while still building on our earlier work.

Squeak Ru: Just staying true to who we are and adding our element to the Westside Connection sound.

Tracks like “County Jail” hit with a different kind of reality—what inspired that song, and why was it important for you to tell that side of the Los Angeles story?

Binky Mack: I started with the Roger sample, and it just took off from there. Squeak came in and wrote something dope.

Squeak Ru: In L.A., people from all walks of life deal with the legal system. I wanted to write something everyone could relate to, so I spoke on one of my own experiences.

On the flip side, songs like “Fill My Cup (To Tha Rim)” brought the party and the Westside vibe—how did you balance street storytelling with those celebratory records?

Binky Mack: That was Dutch on the beat. I haven’t heard it in a minute, but I remember it being fun to make—and shooting the video was a good time.

Squeak Ru: Honestly, I was just trying to be as clever as I could.

Binky, you handled production on the debut—what was your approach to building beats that captured that Inglewood sound but still knocked across the whole West Coast?

Binky Mack: I was knocking out five tracks every other day, sending them to Squeak, and he’d write. That same formula is what we’re using now for the new album.

The West Coast scene has gone through waves and eras since the ’90s—how do you see the legacy of that G-funk and Hoo-Bangin’ movement today?

Binky Mack: Some people forgot—we’re in a microwave era now. But it’s on us to remind them, and that’s what we’re doing with the Lost Tapes album dropping (soon).

Squeak Ru: I see it coming back. People want that substance again.

You’re still performing live decades later—when you hit the stage now and perform those classics, what does it feel like seeing multiple generations rocking with the music?

Binky Mack: It’s always a great feeling. I love seeing artists from the ’80s and ’90s still performing too.

Squeak Ru: Beautiful. Full circle.

Looking back at the journey from Inglewood streets to Westside Connection history and beyond, what do you want the legacy of Allfrumtha I to represent in West Coast hip-hop culture?

Binky Mack: I’ve never really cared what people think, but honestly, I don’t think people have heard our best work yet. We’re about to step on the gas and start dropping more hits.

Squeak Ru: Truth, facts, quality, greatness, and love.

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The official first single off the upcoming AllFrumTha I Lost Tapes album.

The post Allfrumtha I – ‘Connect Gang’ ft. K-Dee & Gangsta first appeared on Rap Industry: New Hip Hop, Rap Videos, Music, News, & more..

By: David “G” Kreluer
Hip-Hop Business • Legal, financial, and strategic intelligence for music industry professionals.

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A federal criminal indictment filed April 2, 2026 in the Northern District of Texas has placed a recording contract termination dispute at the center of a kidnapping and armed robbery prosecution — a development that reframes how independent label operators must think about artist relations, meeting protocols, and the legal architecture of their recording agreements.

What the Record Shows

On January 10, 2026, three music industry professionals — identified in the DOJ complaint by initials only — flew to Dallas for what they believed was a scheduled business meeting at a recording studio. One of the victims, identified as R.D., is described in the indictment as the owner of 1017 Records, a label affiliated with rapper Radric Delantic Davis, known as Gucci Mane, and distributed through Atlantic Records.

According to the federal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, rapper Lontrell Williams Jr. — known professionally as Pooh Shiesty — arranged the meeting under the stated purpose of discussing the terms of his recording contract with 1017 Records. Once the three victims were inside the studio, Williams and eight co-conspirators, several of whom had traveled from Memphis, Tennessee, executed what U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould described at a Thursday press conference as “a coordinated, armed takeover.”

The DOJ alleges that Williams produced an AK-style pistol and forced the label owner to sign contract release paperwork at gunpoint. A second victim was choked to near unconsciousness. A third had cash, jewelry, and personal property taken. Rapper Rodney Wright Jr., known as Big30, is alleged to have barricaded the studio door with his body to prevent the victims from leaving.

Eight of nine named defendants — including Williams, his father Lontrell Williams Sr., and Wright — were arrested Wednesday across Memphis, Nashville, and Dallas. A ninth defendant, Terrance Rodgers, remained at large as of the April 2 press conference.

The evidentiary picture assembled by federal investigators is substantial. Electronic monitoring data placed Williams at the studio in violation of his home detention conditions stemming from a 2022 federal firearms conspiracy conviction out of Florida, for which he served 63 months before his October 2025 release. Cell phone records and license plate reader data corroborated coordinated travel from Memphis to Dallas. Rental car records link Williams Sr. to a vehicle used by the group. Surveillance footage from the studio, a nearby office supply store — where investigators believe the contract termination documents were printed hours before the meeting — and a hotel where several defendants stayed the night after has been recovered. Latent fingerprint evidence from the scene matches at least two defendants. Several defendants posted images on social media within hours of the incident displaying items matching the stolen property.

All defendants face federal charges carrying a maximum sentence of life in federal prison if convicted. At the time of the alleged offense, Williams was on home confinement wearing an electronic monitoring device, conditions that explicitly prohibited him from committing another federal offense or possessing a firearm.

What This Actually Means

Every outlet that covered this story, including us framed it as a crime story. It’s also a contract story, a label operations story, and an industry security failure hiding in plain sight.

The question the trade press hasn’t asked is the one that matters most to professionals reading this column: how does an independent label operator end up in a Dallas recording studio, without security, across a table from an artist disputing contract terms?

The answer is that hip-hop independent labels has never really formalized the operational separation between artist relations and contract negotiation. At major labels, contract disputes route through legal departments, are conducted in controlled environments, and never involve the label principal physically meeting a disputant without counsel present and the exchange documented. At the independent level — where the label owner is often also the A&R, the business affairs executive, and the check signer — those boundaries collapse entirely. The result is what the DOJ described on April 2.

Music managers need to understand what this indictment reveals about their specific role when an artist is in a contract dispute. A manager’s job is to advocate fiercely for their artist’s interests — to negotiate better terms, to leverage the artist’s commercial value, to find a resolution that advances the artist’s position. What this case exposes is what happens when that advocacy operates without structure. A manager working an artist through a genuine contract dispute needs legal counsel in the room, a documented negotiating position in writing, and a clear channel of communication with the label that does not route through an informal studio meeting. The manager’s leverage on behalf of the artist is strongest when the process is formalized — because formalized process protects the artist’s legal position if the dispute escalates to litigation. An undocumented, unstructured meeting at a recording studio protects nobody, least of all the artist.

Entertainment attorneys surely understand that the document allegedly signed under duress in that Dallas studio has no legal validity. Duress invalidates consent under contract law in every U.S. jurisdiction. But the more important structural point is this: if the termination paperwork was being prepared at a Staples location hours before a scheduled business meeting, the label’s attorney was not in the loop. No contract termination discussion of any kind should occur without independent counsel on both sides, in writing, before any meeting takes place. That failure belongs equally to both parties.

The Legal and Financial Mechanics

Three legal layers deserve examination that the general press coverage has entirely skipped.

First, the duress question. The indictment alleges that the label owner was forced at gunpoint to sign a document releasing Pooh Shiesty from his recording contract with 1017 Records. Under contract law principles applicable in Texas and every other U.S. jurisdiction, a contract signed under physical duress is voidable — not void on its face, but voidable at the election of the coerced party. The label owner retains the right to disaffirm that signature. The practical implication: Pooh Shiesty’s recording contract with 1017 Records almost certainly remains in legal effect regardless of what was signed in that room, and any future recording, distribution, or licensing activity he undertakes will be subject to its terms until it is properly terminated through lawful means or litigation resolves the dispute.

Second, the morality clause exposure. Standard recording contracts in hip-hop — including those structured through major label distribution arrangements — contain morality clauses permitting the label to terminate an artist’s contract when conduct brings the artist into public disrepute or subjects the label to reputational harm. Federal kidnapping and armed robbery charges filed by the Department of Justice almost certainly satisfy the triggering threshold of any competently drafted morality clause. The legal irony embedded in this indictment is precise: Pooh Shiesty allegedly attempted to terminate his own contract through force, and in doing so handed 1017 Records the mechanism to terminate it legitimately. Whether Gucci Mane’s label exercises that option — and whether the existing contract structure already addresses incarceration given Pooh Shiesty’s prior conviction — is a question 1017’s counsel is answering right now.

Third, the distribution agreement exposure. 1017 Records operates under a distribution arrangement with Atlantic Records, a Warner Music Group subsidiary. Distribution agreements routinely contain provisions requiring the label to notify the distributor of material legal developments affecting its roster. A federal kidnapping indictment naming the label’s primary commercial artist is unambiguously material. Atlantic’s legal team will most likely be reviewing its agreement with 1017 for suspension rights, audit triggers, and termination provisions. Independent labels operating under major distribution deals need to understand that their distributor is a contractual counterparty with its own risk management obligations — and a federal criminal prosecution of a flagship artist activates those obligations immediately.

What Independent Operators Need to Know

One. Never conduct a contract dispute discussion — informal or formal — in a physical meeting without counsel present on both sides, a documented written agenda distributed in advance, and a neutral location that is not a recording studio. A recording studio is an artist’s operational territory. It is not a negotiating environment. The April 2 indictment is the direct consequence of ignoring that distinction.

Two. Audit your recording contracts today for three specific provisions: the morality clause and its triggering threshold, the suspension clause and whether pending criminal charges activate it, and the incapacity provision addressing an artist’s inability to perform due to incarceration. If your standard contract does not address all three with specificity, it needs to be redrafted before your next signing. Pooh Shiesty’s prior incarceration should have made this audit mandatory for 1017 before his October 2025 release. It apparently was not sufficient to resolve this dispute through lawful channels.

Three. If you operate under a major label distribution agreement, read your notification obligations tonight. Identify every provision requiring disclosure of material legal developments affecting your roster to your distributor. If a signed artist is facing federal charges — whether publicly disclosed or not — failure to notify your distributor per the terms of your distribution agreement creates a separate breach exposure that compounds the underlying problem. Do not assume your distributor’s legal team is not already reading the same DOJ press release you are.

THE BOTTOM LINE

For entertainment attorneys: The document signed in that Dallas studio is legally unenforceable as a contract termination instrument. Your immediate task — if you represent either party — is to establish the contractual status of the artist relationship, assess morality clause triggers, and build the duress record before any parallel civil litigation begins. The criminal case will move on its own timeline. The contract dispute will not wait for it.

For music managers: Your job in a contract dispute is to win the best outcome for your artist — better terms, a clean exit, or a restructured deal. This indictment shows what happens when that fight plays out without legal infrastructure around it. The way you protect your artist’s negotiating position and their long-term legal standing is to formalize every communication, get counsel in the room, and ensure that nothing of consequence happens in an undocumented setting. Informal doesn’t protect your artist. It exposes them.

For independent label operators: You are the most exposed professional category in this story. You are likely your own business affairs department, your own A&R, and in too many cases your own security detail. No artist contract dispute should result in your physical presence at a location of the artist’s choosing without counsel, without a documented agenda, and without someone who knows where you are and why. The three victims in this indictment flew to Dallas for what they were told was a business meeting. Build the protocols now that ensure that situation never describes you.

The post When Contract Termination Comes Strapped: What the Poo Shiesty Indictment Reveals About Independent Label Vulnerability. first appeared on Rap Industry: New Hip Hop, Rap Videos, Music, News, & more..

BET will air the “HBCU AWAREFEST Benefit Concert Special” on Sunday, April 5 at 9 PM ET/ 8 PM CT, bringing the star-studded celebration to audiences nationwide. The mission of HBCU AWAREFEST is to increase awareness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and raise money to address the $1.8 trillion student loan debt burden disproportionately incurred by their students.

The special captures the inaugural HBCU AWAREFEST concert presented by Student Freedom Initiative and Live Nation Urban, filmed at State Farm Arena, a star-studded benefit concert supporting HBCUs, featuring a genre-spanning lineup including Jill Scott, Tems, Common, Jeezy, Yolanda Adams, Coco Jones, Kirk Franklin, BigXthaPlug, and more.

In addition to the performances, the special will feature appearances and remarks from cultural and civic leaders including Robert F. Smith, Keith B. Shoates, Mayor Andre Dickens, Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Jamal Bryant, Tyler Perry, Daymond John, Anthony Anderson, Rocsi Diaz, Angela Yee, Kandi Burruss, Angel Reese, Ryan Clark, Will Packer, Deon Cole, and more.

As a first-of-its-kind cultural and civic initiative, HBCU AWAREFEST has already achieved historic milestones, including a Georgia Senate resolution declaring March 26, 2026, as HBCU AWAREFEST Day. This honor recognizes the inaugural festival’s mission to address the student loan debt crisis and expand economic mobility for students at HBCUs.

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Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has been telling us for years that music was never going to be enough. The man who built his legend on airing out depression and loneliness in 808-soaked anthems — before that was considered commercially viable — has always operated with one foot in a world that extends past the recording booth. Now, he’s officially stepped through the other door.

Kid Cudi is in production in Los Angeles on Doe, his feature directorial debut, where he plays the title role, starring alongside Mark Webber, Leah McNamara, Brandon Scott, and Brandon Perea. Cudi also wrote the screenplay. Doe explores themes of addiction and survival through the lens of a man living on the streets of Hollywood who, over the course of 24 hours, drifts through a series of encounters that pull him in and out of the cycles of his compulsion.

The subject matter is not incidental. Cudi has been publicly candid about his own battles with addiction and mental health — a fact that makes him the most credible possible author of this particular story. The choice to write, direct, and star in a film about a homeless man navigating addiction in Hollywood is not a departure from his artistic identity. It is a direct extension of it.

“Directing for me has been the ultimate dream of mine since I was a little boy,” Mescudi told Deadline. “I’ve always been fascinated with film, and I’ve been sharpening my sword for years waiting for this very moment. It’s truly been the best experience filming this movie and I can’t wait for the world to see a true work of passion and love, made with friends.”

That’s not a press quote. That’s a mission statement.

The film is being produced under his Mad Solar banner alongside Karina Manashil, with Mark Webber, Anthony Baldino, and Ryan Lacen also producing. Mad Solar, which Cudi founded in 2020, has quietly become one of the more credible artist-run production companies operating right now. Its credits include the Emmy-winning Netflix special Entergalactic, which Cudi co-created with Kenya Barris; the A24 horror franchise starting with Ti West’s X; and the Amazon documentary A Man Named Scott. Mad Solar recently also wrapped on God Backwards, directed by Adam Mortimer, in which Mescudi stars opposite Jessica Rothe.

This is a production company with genuine filmmaker relationships, a defined aesthetic sensibility, and a track record of projects that get critical attention — not a vanity imprint stamping a rapper’s name on other people’s work.

The cast assembled for Doe signals ambition, not stunt casting. Brandon Perea (Nope), Brandon Scott (Dead to Me), and Leah McNamara (Normal People) are working actors with serious dramatic credits. Cudi is also writing original songs for the film.

Doe is expected to reach theaters sometime in early 2027.

Cudi’s trajectory as a filmmaker represents something worth paying close attention to. The most commercially durable artists of the next decade won’t just be musicians who act in other people’s films. They’ll be creative executives who control their own IP, tell their own stories through their own production infrastructure, and use their brand equity to greenlight projects that a traditional studio system might never touch.

Kid Cudi figured that out a while ago. Doe is just the latest proof.

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Lil Durk’s federal murder-for-hire trial kicks off on April 21 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. This isn’t a civil dispute over a sample or a label fight dressed up in legal language. This is a federal criminal trial — a sitting one-percentile rap artist, one of the genre’s biggest-selling voices of the last decade, facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a federal penitentiary.

Durk was arrested in October 2024 on a murder-for-hire allegation after five people allegedly tied to the rapper’s Only the Family crew were accused of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in connection with the 2022 shooting of Quando Rondo. The alleged retaliation plot traces back to the killing of King Von, Durk’s close associate and protégé. During the 2022 shooting, Rondo was not the one who died — instead, their attack fatally wounded Rondo’s 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson. Durk has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial has been delayed multiple times. It was originally set for January 20 before being pushed. A complicating factor now involves three co-defendants who filed a severance motion — if the judge grants it, Durk’s trial could proceed on the original April 21 date, separate from his co-defendants. As of this writing, the court has not ruled on the severance request.

What’s happening inside the walls is equally troubling. According to his attorneys, Durk has spent months in solitary confinement after allegedly being found in possession of an unauthorized Apple Watch. His legal team has argued those conditions constitute a possible Eighth Amendment violation. He has been confined to a small cell for 23 hours a day, with access to only one phone call per month and no in-person social visits.

Despite that, Durk broke through this week with a voice message to fans. In it, he discussed his mental state, the books he’s been reading to stay positive, and his desire to be a positive influence for younger generations. It was, by any measure, a dignified statement from a man under extraordinary pressure.

His legal team is no lightweight operation. A high-profile attorney known for defending Young Thug in Atlanta’s blockbuster RICO case has been added to Durk’s legal team — a signal that the defense is building for a complex, high-stakes fight.

Durk’s case arrives in a moment where Diddy’s appeal hearing looms on April 9, Pooh Shiesty just caught new federal charges days after his last release, and YNW Melly continues to fight a double-murder case in Florida.

The post Lil Durk’s Murder-for-Hire Trial Is 18 Days Out — Here’s Exactly Where the Case Stands. first appeared on Rap Industry: New Hip Hop, Rap Videos, Music, News, & more..

Let’s be honest: when the news first broke that J. Cole signed a professional basketball contract with the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association, half the internet dismissed it as an April Fools Joke. The other half cracked jokes. Neither group is paying close enough attention.

Rap megastar J. Cole has signed a contract to play in the Chinese Basketball Association with the Nanjing Monkey Kings, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The 41-year-old multi-Grammy-winning artist committed to playing a limited number of games for the team — a commitment he says he made to the organization last year. Cole told Cam’ron in a podcast while promoting The Fall-Off that the Monkey Kings had offered him a position, and he felt compelled to follow through: “I’m looking at the clock like, boy, I’m getting older. This might be my last shot. I’m going to keep my word to them and show up and play a couple of games.”

That quote is the key to understanding why this matters. Cole isn’t chasing relevance. He’s honoring a commitment and expanding his footprint into the world’s most populous sports market at a moment when his music career is arguably in its most critically mature phase.

This is the third time Cole has played in a professional sports league. He played with the Rwanda Patriots in the Basketball Africa League in 2021 and with the Scarborough Shooting Stars in the Canadian Elite Basketball League in 2022. None of these stints were vanity plays. They were calculated moves that generated massive international press cycles and kept Cole’s name in cultural conversations far beyond rap.

The real business angle is this: as a minority owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, the Nanjing Monkey Kings’ general manager expressed hope that Cole’s involvement could help facilitate opportunities for Chinese players to train and play in the United States. General manager Zhen Wang said, “J. Cole coming to China can really raise the CBA’s profile on a global scale. Since he’s the minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, we’re hoping that through his position, he can maybe help more of our domestic players get opportunities to train and play in the U.S.”

Read that again. A Chinese basketball organization isn’t signing J. Cole to sell jerseys. They’re signing him as a bridge — a cultural and professional conduit between one of the fastest-growing sports markets in the world and the NBA ecosystem. Cole is being used as soft power infrastructure, and he’s smart enough to let it happen while getting genuine court time in the process.

The Nanjing Monkey Kings are no minor-league operation. The team has previously featured Americans Willie Cauley-Stein and Antonio Blakeney, and Senegalese-born NBA veteran Tacko Fall. This is a high-profile CBA franchise, and Cole’s arrival will be broadcast to an audience of basketball fans that dwarfs any American league outside the NBA.

For the hip-hop industry, Cole’s move is a masterclass in brand extension. While most rappers chase endorsements and Instagram deals, Cole is leveraging real ownership stakes, real court minutes, and real international relationships to build the kind of diversified portfolio that creates generational wealth and cultural longevity. He’s not performing for you. He’s building something.

Don’t sleep on the chess move because the checkmate looks like a layup.

The post J. Cole Signs Pro Basketball Contract With China’s Nanjing Monkey Kings. first appeared on Rap Industry: New Hip Hop, Rap Videos, Music, News, & more..

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.

Over the past week, Earl, MIKE and SURF GANG have shut down intimate venues in LA and New York City for two secret shows they unveiled via a scavenger hunt on their website last month. The third and final secret show will take place tonight in London, ahead of their Home on the Range tour in support of the album, which kicks off in June. The official Home on the Range tour will include 26 US stops beginning June 9th in Riverside, before taking it overseas to Europe. MIKE and Earl also announced a series of Australian and New Zealand tour dates in May, including a show at Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE Festival. 

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.

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Producer: Yuri

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“Cookie patches all over the fly shit!” Planet Asia exclaims on the intro track, No Mistakes allowed. This album picks up where NO EXIT PLANS left off. The Gold Chain General gracefully remains at the top of his game on Phil A’s production.

With features from Gold Chain veterans like TRISTATE & FLASHIUS CLAYTON, this album will be a must have for die hard fans.

ALI known from ST. LUNATICS makes surprise appearance. Also P.A. introduces to a new audience, Gautama as well as Phil A collaborator Rasson Arigato.

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