Relentlessly releasing two mixtapes, five EPs, and two albums since 2010, Atlanta hip-hop duo EARTHGANG (comprised of Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot) caught the attention and signing of J. Cole to Dreamville Records. Now promoting their upcoming album, “Mirrorland,” the duo has dropped their promotional EP, “Royalty.”

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The album and duo continues to draw heavy influence from Atlanta legends before them. Falsetto vocal changes on “Build,” for example, sound like some of Andre 3000’s experimental vocals on OutKast’s “ATLiens.”

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Much like J. Cole, EARTHGANG presents different pieces of information about the two members over time. Each project keeps the audience at a distance, there to feed off of the energy and general vibe of their project.

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The 24 minute drug infused EP begins on “Cocktail” with intoxicating trumpets that lead copesetically “down the rabbit hole.” A series of dazed skits from DC Young Fly play intermittently, asking “where the hell we goin? – Mirrorland, bruh?” The come-up of the albums ‘high’ is a play on their own come up. Dot raps on “Build,” “just yesterday, I had everything / everything was nothing / fuck everything.” They see themselves as on their way to greatness, which smoothly transitions into Ari Lennox’s chorus on the next song, “Nothing but the Best” (“hundred million on my mind).

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Fly signifies peak high on Skit 2, “I can fly… so many aliens.” This marks the beginning of EARTHGANG’s coming down, but not before they buy an “E-class Benz” “Off the Lot.” At this point they are celebrating, “swerving through the hood on the way to Dubai,” however they are beginning to question the inconsistency of a higher power’s plan for them, asking “God, how the fuck you let these killers boss up? We was in the church buildings [while] they was robbin’ us silly.”

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The two rappers are sober by, “Lolsmh,” back to being “hostage to my ego” and “allowing these distractions.” Submerged in melancholy they note that, “politicians is the gangsters and gangsters is the artists and the artists is the politcians.” As they look out at the world, their “hearts get broken and their souls get weak.” Though it started out so good, they find themselves wanting to detach again, and “let it go.” So they get high again, their sobriety so far gone they ask, out of disbelief for the things they know to be true, “Am I dead?”