On Wednesday, Nov. 13, EarthGang came to the WOW Hall with support from Benji and Guapdad 4000.
Fans were already coming through the doors right as they opened at 7 p.m. to secure spots at the front. The concert was sold out, with about 500 attendees throughout the night.
The show started promptly at 8 p.m., and the first performance was by Benji. Benji is a rapper, singer and producer from Pittsburgh. His goal was to get the crowd hyped up — he started his set off with a few popular rap songs, like “Take a Step Back” by Ski Mask the Slump God. Benji had the whole venue jumping around at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night to trap beats and a mix of fast and slow rapping.
For his last track, Benji yelled, “Open that shit up!” to which the mostly teenage and 20-something audience reacted by forming a large circle, waiting for the bass to drop. The bass was heavy, shaking the speakers, and a trap beat was overlaid. Benji threw water all over the crowd before joining in the mosh himself. While his set was only 25 minutes, he set the tone for the rest of the night and the crowd was sufficiently amped up.
After a quick changeover, Bay Area artist Guapdad 4000 appeared on the stage in a sparkly blue durag and Guapdad T-Shirt.
Guapdad had the crowd chanting, “It’s a check” — his catchphrase –throughout the night. “When I say ‘it’s a,’ you say ‘check’!” he said to the crowd, which cheered back at him.
“Y’all really feel me out here,” Guapdad said. “I gotta come to Oregon more often.”
One of his songs, he explained, was about a time when he woke up after a crazy night to find that a girl had stolen his Gucci pajamas. He said he wrote a song about it because he’s petty, and then continued to play “Gucci Pajamas,” a song featuring Chance the Rapper and Charlie Wilson. He had the audience singing the chorus: “She don’t wanna give me my Gucci pajamas back.”
After crowd surfing for the last song, Guapdad ended his set around 9 p.m. and everyone waited for the next performance. Thirty minutes later, it was time for the headliner.
The room turned dark and a DJ played mysterious sounds: ticking, robotic beeping, ambient noise. Then the intro to “LaLa Challenge” came on — “Come on, sit down in here and get comfortable,” — and Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot of EarthGang stepped onto the stage.
EarthGang, formed in 2008, are signed to J. Cole’s label Dreamville Records. After releasing “Royalty,” their 2018 album, they’re back with their tour for “Mirrorland,” a 14-track album with features from Young Thug, T-Pain and Kehlani, among others. They incorporate classic elements like funk and soul into their music, but mostly have a distinct, modern sound, influenced by their Southern roots yet unique to these two rappers. With almost 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, EarthGang is on the rise.
Wednesday wasn’t the Atlanta duo’s first time in Eugene. Back in 2014, they had their first WOW Hall show with Ab Soul and Bas. They asked the crowd who had been to that show, to which a handful of audience members cheered. Then they asked, “Whose first EarthGang show is this?” to which even more people cheered. Then they asked: who would be back for another one?
Halfway through the set, they tried to get everyone in the venue to be quiet, which took a while. Through giggles, yelled phrases, and repeats of “yeah dude” or “go ducks,” the crowd never silenced. EarthGang then played “This Side” and fans sang along to the chorus: “We havin’ fun on this side / whole lot of love on this side / know you wanna come on this side / know you wanna hop on this ride.”
Other notable songs throughout the night included “Swivel,” “Down Bad” and “Wells Fargo.” EarthGang played a mix of older songs as well, but since this was a Mirrorland tour, they mostly played songs from the newest album. Fans sang along to “Proud of U,” which features Young Thug.
At the end of their set, EarthGang came back for an encore with “Up,” which was popularized from one of their two Colors shows on YouTube and has racked up over 9 million views since 2018.
They capped off the night by saying to the audience, “I am EarthGang, you are EarthGang, we are all EarthGang!”
