Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE Are Dropping the Album Everyone Has Been Waiting For

Been waiting on this one for a while.

Over a year ago MIKE mentioned a tape in the works with Surf Gang in an interview. Nothing materialized at the time. What came instead was something much bigger: a 33-track double album with Earl Sweatshirt, fully produced by Surf Gang, dropping April 3. The project is called POMPEII // UTILITY and it is one of the most anticipated releases in underground hip-hop in years, for good reason.

If you know both artists even a little, this makes complete sense. Earl discovered MIKE's music in 2016. Their mutual friend Wiki made the introduction. MIKE joined Earl's Fire It Up Tour in 2019. They have been featuring on each other's records since 2020, with highlights like "allstar" on MIKE's weight of the world and "Sentry" on Earl and the Alchemist's VOIR DIRE. The relationship has been building in public for almost a decade. This album is the natural outcome of that.

The project is structured as a double LP. POMPEII is MIKE's side, 15 tracks. UTILITY is Earl's, 18 tracks. The two trade bars on "Kirkland," "#FREE #MIKE," and "Leadbelly," which dropped this week as the latest single and might be the clearest preview of what the full album sounds like... a woozy, joyous back-and-forth between two people who genuinely enjoy making music together. Harrison, Evilgiane, Elipropperr, and Flea Diamonds from Surf Gang handled production throughout, with Harrison serving as the main architect.

Who Is Surf Gang

Surf Gang is worth knowing if you don't already. Evilgiane founded the New York collective in 2018. The original crew came together through skateboarding, a shared aesthetic, and a willingness to experiment with sound in ways that most of their peers weren't. What started as a large rotating cast of rappers and producers has since tightened into a producer collective and label led by Evilgiane, Harrison, and Eera.

The connection to Earl and MIKE was already established before this album. Evilgiane produced Earl's "Making the Band (Danity Kane)" in 2023, one of Earl's best-received singles in years. That same year Evilgiane produced Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem's "The Hillbillies," which is when a lot of people outside the underground finally started paying attention. Harrison brought MIKE's "Belly 1" in 2025. The relationship between these three camps had been forming for years before anyone announced a project.

In a recent interview with The Face, Earl described what it was like recording with them: "I got to relearn how to make beats with Harrison by just watching him. Super intuitive. Minimal. Not overthinking." MIKE added: "I'm starting to see everything, no matter who it is or how we do it, as part of the same movement. We all have ownership and responsibility in a sense. It's like there's a pot, and we're responsible for putting things back into that pot."

The Name, the Concept, the Artwork

MIKE explained the album title in an interview with Pitchfork last year: "N***as was so clapped in the studio, the homies was just in crazy positions but, like, frozen." The Pompeii image stuck. POMPEII became MIKE's side of the record, the eruption, the chaos captured in the moment. UTILITY became Earl's side, the rebuilding, the determination to put something back together. Two different energies held in one release.

Every piece of artwork across the singles and the album was created by sculptor Sharif Farrag, a childhood friend of Earl's. Nothing was outsourced. The cover art, the single covers, all of it came from within the circle. That detail says everything about how this project was made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXurKV1PoSI

What We Have Heard So Far

Three singles are out ahead of the April 3 release. "Minty" is MIKE and Surf Gang: his low register, his descriptive scenes, a minimalist beat that lets every word land. "Earth" is Earl and Surf Gang: looser than his solo work, more alive, the drums doing something different than what you expect from him. "Leadbelly" is the one that lands hardest so far. Earl and MIKE trading bars back and forth, produced by Harrison, Elipropperr, and Tony Seltzer. It sounds like two people who have been friends for ten years finally making the record they were always going to make.

Earl said it well in The Face interview: "I feel obligated to put a lot into it because of the gift of getting to do this."

POMPEII // UTILITY drops April 3 on 10k, Tan Cressida, and Surf Gang Records. Earl, MIKE, and Harrison are taking it on the road starting June 9 in Riverside and crossing the US through July. Indianapolis is on the list: June 24, Egyptian Room at Old National Centre. Europe follows in August and September.