After recording their past recent albums and EPs either while on the road or in brief breaks between tours, inventive hip-hop duo EarthGang finally had a chance to reconnect with their hometown of Atlanta when the pandemic halted concerts almost everywhere.

Although Olu (Olu O. Fann) and WowGr8 (Eian Undrai Parker) have often nodded to Atlanta in their songs before (check out “Wings,” off 2019 album, Mirrorland) their upcoming album, Ghetto Gods, is a direct address to their community and the people with whom they grew up.

In a way, Olu said, their experience during the pandemic was not unlike others who had a chance to really examine their lives and everything that shaped them along the way.

“A lot of people got the chance to really sit down, you know I’m saying, address themselves and take stock of, like, ‘Are they who they want to be? Are they on the path that they’re going? Are there things that they need to change? Are there new talents and gifts that they need to develop?’ All of this was indicative of the godly part of really just transforming yourself, like we have been doing this pandemic,” Olu said in a recent call. “I think this pandemic has been a transformative experience for the entire world, especially for us, our communities and for where we’re from.”

Ghetto Gods, which Olu and WowGr8 announced back in February and said is close to being done, deals with overcoming hardships with the help of community and respecting those who’ve succeeded. The godliness they rap about isn’t something unattainable but is in each of us if we want to use it for good.

They’ve preceded the album with a couple of freestyle tributes to Erykah Badu and Aretha Franklin, two icons who influenced them not only musically but also as examples of godliness in their communities.

They will write more as they’re inspired to do so, and they’re not going to only limit themselves to doing so before the album comes out.

“In front of our neighborhood, we kind of realized we could tie it in with the ‘Ghetto Gods’ theme by thematically and very deliberately paying tribute to people that overcame and became icons and legends in their own right,” WowGr8 said. “It’s a metamorphosis album, so we just celebrate people that metamorphized in ways that we admire. … There’s going to be freestyles celebrating those people that we like.

EarthGang, who are cofounders of the Spillage Village collective (including J.I.D, Hollywood JB, JordxnBryant, 6LACK, Mereba and Benji), are already a successful Southern hip-hop duo, drawing comparisons to forebearers like Outkast. But Ghetto Gods, with which they’re taking their time, should put them squarely in their own spotlight.

Olu and WowGr8 met when they were in high school. They started making music around 2008 and released their debut EP, The Better Party, in 2010. They’ve been busy ever since, releasing numerous mixtapes and singles that grew their stature and drew the attention of J. Cole, who signed them to his Dreamville Records label. Their lyricism has ranged from razor-sharp social commentary to laugh-out-loud funny, and never superficial. Sonically, they’ve never stayed in one place too long, blending elements of Southern trap with soul, funk and even pop.

EarthGang has collaborated with the likes of Mac Miller, DJ Khalil, Childish Major (and J. Cole). The duo also appeared on songs with Gorillaz, Louis The Child, TOKiMONSTA, Brittany Howard and Sinéad Harnett. Mirrorland, their first LP on Dreamville, had features from Kehlani, Young Thug and T-Pain.

Last fall, they and their Spillage Village collaborators released a fourth album, Spilligion, that dove into themes of faith and religion in Black culture. And they’ve been nominated for three Grammys; twice in 2020 for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album (a part of their inclusion on a Dreamville compilation; and again this year for Best R&B song, a collaboration with Tiana Major9 for “Collide,” from the film “Queen & Slim.”

EarthGang was honored by the nomination, even if winning awards has nothing to do with why the duo makes music.

“They come when they come. You can’t adjust your whole lifestyle, your art, your passion, the thing that makes you wake up every morning for that, you know what I’m saying?” WowGr8 said.

“It’s just kind of a reminder that what we’re doing … is connecting. I understand that the Grammys is sometimes all about numbers, sometimes it’s all about impact, sometimes it’s about politics,” Olu added. “But at the end of the day, we know that when we connect with our fans, when we connect with the culture, when we are honest, when we say dope shit over raw beats and raw music, that that in itself is going to stand the test of time and knock down all of those other doors into these other spaces like Grammys or Billboard Music Awards.”

They’ve been on the festival circuit the summer but got an early start last January at New Zealand’s Bay Dreams Festival, which took place while much of the rest of the world was still quarantining, but that country had yet to experience a spike in COVID-19 cases. Olu said the experience was indicative of the EarthGang journey of setting high goals and then busting their behinds to achieve them. In this case, the sacrifice led to what he called a beautiful experience that wasn’t yet possible to have in the U.S.

“A lot of people don’t know we quarantined for two weeks in the hotel room in order to be able to do that, and it really just shows us the power of dreaming and then setting goals, and sacrificing and really staying put and staying focused on the goals that you set,” Olu said.

At a festival like Outside Lands, the duo wants to unify people through its music, release their pent-up energy and get recharged before heading back to their lives. At the time of this interview, the duo had just played at Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas and was gearing up for Governor’s Ball in New York, and they were still coming off a high of playing in front of 20,000.

“It really is about feeling yourself and feeling your freedom, for the most part, on stage,” WowGr8 said. “There’s different interpretations and different messages you get from the music; that’s up to the listeners to find on their own, just to discover that and let that be a reason why you get attached a little more to EarthGang. But when it comes to showtime, we out there to release energy.”

The two have also gotten attention for its collaboration with Indonesian rapper Rich Brian on “Act Up,” off the recently released soundtrack to Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” overseen by 88rising.

The two said their involvement on the song was a happy coincidence and that there was on original version with another artist instead of Brian. The two were sent a trailer for the film as well as a couple of other songs as a palette to inspire them.

“When we heard the final, it was Rich Brian on it, which is crazy because I’ve been a friend of him since he was Rich Chigga,” WowGr8 said. “Then I come to find out it was one of the top Shazamed songs in the world since the movie’s come out. This was an interesting ride. It’s not even luck. It’s the benefit of working and being consistent in your work for a long time. People know they can come to you and get something good.”

EarthGang will look to make another big leap with their next album; specifically, in terms of production and features, Olu and WowGr8 said. Ghetto Gods will include a bevy of Atlanta artists like Future will make an appearance. Collaborating with more artists who make a wider range of music is a priority.

“It’s really dope to have the city be involved with the album and champion the album and really get behind the momentum of everything that we’ve created so far,” Olu said. “In a lot of ways, we always attack our production. … It’s the soundscape to the stories that we’re telling and we want to make sure that it’s current but also experimental and that it has the musical elements that are who we are.”

True to their name, and the theme of the new album, EarthGang is about more than its music. On a national scale, Olu and WowGr8 have been involved in voting rights and advocacy with Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization and becoming spokesmen for Music Climate Revolution, a group that works to decrease the carbon footprint of artists. Locally, they’re working to improve the underserved predominantly Black Atlanta neighborhood where they grew up.

In April, for Earth Day, the two made a sizable donation and participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for an urban farm at a middle school in their community where many students reported having food insecurity (you can still participate in a fundraiser to keep the project going). Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike, whom Olu said attended that middle school and advocates for underserved people, also participated.

Olu said the project is about teaching others how to be self-sustainable, care for themselves and find their gifts. But it’s just one of the social justice issues that EarthGang champions.

“You feel strongly about anything that’s facing the planet around you, so of course you care a lot about climate change, care a lot about voting rights … a critical one that really hit me has been the prison system—just the whole system of reform, the whole system of incarceration,” WowGr8 said. “There’s so many things that can be improved about it, and I don’t really know where to start as far as what we can do, but I do know that it’s been hitting home if you ask what’s been really affecting me.”

Olu agreed with his friend’s sentiment.

“Sometimes you can be completely just overwhelmed with everything that’s going on, and … choosing one [cause] to focus on can seem like a first world luxury or whatever,” he said. “But I think with that type of focus—which is fleeting today with the internet and everything that’s going on and people’s attention spans—you’re actually making a lot of ground, a lot of steps.

“For me, it’s climate change; it’s restorative justice through sustainability,” he added. “Incarceration, food scarcity; a lot of these things affect Black and Brown people first and the most, or poor people. I think that is the same thing with climate change. … There is such a vast field of ways that we can really assist and care for our planet but live in a harmonious way. To me, that’s the most important thing.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.