Album Review - Spillage Village , JID, EARTHGANG - Spilligion

 Today, I will be reviewing Spilligion by the Spillage Village Collective. The collective consists of EarthGang, JID, Hollywood JB, Jurdan Bryant, Mereba, 6lack, and Benji. This is their major label debut album on Dreamville/Interscope. 

    The album starts of with a thriller background and a group of guys outside a church talking about religion and sipping liquor. Overall, as the title and cover allude to, the album's main theme is religion. Taking an ominous stance, the collective's efforts does not feel overdone at all. Produced mainly by Christo, Benji, Hollywood JB and Olu, the album's soundscape is extremely novel in its approach and a refreshingly honest use of synthesizing sounds that merge wistfully with the gospel sound.

    Songs like 'PsalmSing' and 'Ea'alah' (Family in Arabic), 'Mecca' on the first half of the album take a more acoustic, band-like, and positive approach to gospel and feel inspiring. 'Mecca' specifically has a bassline and electric guitar accompaniment that is reminiscent of the Anderson .Paak sound and is executed to perfection, one of my favorite lines by JID is 'they love me in Cologne, I ain't talking about the odor' shouting his German fans out with a double entendre. 

    On the second half of the album starting with 'Judas', the fast bpm production and 'Hit The Road Jack' interpolation takes you on a different detour on this sonic journey, with a very special guest appearance by Ari Lennox, Chance The Rapper, and Masego (who interpolates Gold Digger in the chorus). One of my favorite lines by Chance is 'They like to use us like movers in Ubers and cabs, Uncle Sam is the one that really could use a hijab".

    We then go into the part of the album that includes 6lack in 'Oshun' and 'Cupid'. You can hear his presence in the sound with deeper bass and 808s, talk about love, women, and slow-grind verses. The songs also feature Lucky Daye.

    On the last third of the album, we leave the acoustic but still stick to the inspiring and socially conscious sound. 'Shiva' features 5 verses and Doctor Dut on the chorus. 'End of Daze' was the one of the singles dropped from the album and features the whole collective talking about the apocalypse on a Pink-Panther thriller type beat that keeps you guessing. On 'Hapi' we switch to a more positive sound than 'End of Daze' on the longest song of the album. Snaps, claps, piano, visions of a better future and overall positivity are the name of the game with 'Hapi'. Big Rube's outro to 'Hapi' is extremely powerful poetry.

    The group wraps up the album with 'Jupiter' a song sung completely in unison by everyone. An apt ending to a great piece of art.

    If you haven't listened to the album, please check it out below. As always thanks for reading and stay tuned for more awesome music!


    


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