“End of Daze” is an apocalypse (“God packed his bags and said bye-bye,” Mereba sings on the hook) set to candied neo-soul, while “Hapi” is a prayer for survival that resembles a sermon. Throughout, hope, love, and camaraderie take center stage amid a backdrop of injustice and doom. “Baptize” playfully incorporates the language of the sacred in a display of nimble lyricism elsewhere, 'Judas' deals with betrayal and loss, while “Oshun,” named for the Yoruba goddess of sensuality, and “Cupid,” named for the Roman god of desire, juxtapose experiences of romance.
Built around religious signifiers and iconography, the album teases out the theme to create something that is ambitious in its scope and lush in its musicality. As pandemic and social upheaval gripped the country, the artists-duo EARTHGANG, rappers JID and Jurdan Bryant, singers 6LACK and Mereba, and producers Hollywood JB and Benji-holed up in an Atlanta rental and came back with Spilligion. The multifaceted collective Spillage Village does a little bit of all three.
In times of turmoil, some retreat inward, some draw closer to their fellow humans, and others lean into spirituality.
