Spillage Village is an American musical collective from Atlanta, Georgia. The group is composed of rappers, singers and producers, and was founded by the members of EarthGang.ÃÂ Spillage Village was primarily made up of five initial members with a split-base in both Atlanta and Baltimore.
The group was originally founded byàOlu (aka Johnny Venus)àandàWowGr8 (aka Doctur Dot)àof EarthGang, who recruited rapperàJIDàto the group during their time at Hampton University. BrothersàHollywood JBàandàJurdan Bryantàjoined the Spillage Village soon after. Doctur Dot and Johnny Venus approached JID after hearing his first mixtapeàaround campus in 2010. The rest of the group also came into Spillage Village through connections includingàproducer Hollywood JB, who met Doctur Dot at a block party and joined soon afterward. Their first compilation as a collective,àBears Like This, was released independently on February 2, 2014.àThe albumàwas 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 EarthGangâÂÂs house. A year later, Spillage Village followed up with theiràsecond compilation,àBears Like This Too on July 6, 2015, includingà6LACKàandàOG Maco.
On July 29, 2016, DJ KhaledâÂÂs 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 compilationàBears 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,àthe albumàfeatured only three outside artists:àJ. Cole,àBas, andàQuentin Miller. Production was from a variety of contributors, includingàMac Miller,àChildish Major,àJ. Cole, and Hollywood JB. When describing the collective albums, 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 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.
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.