Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, And Surf Gang Announce Album And Tour

Official Announcement | Published: Mar 10, 2026 1:49 PM EDT

(Orienteer) Longtime collaborators, tourmates, and friends Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and SURF GANG, announce their collaborative double LP POMPEII // UTILITY due April 3rd via 10k/Tan Cressida/SURF GANG Records. Bringing together two of the most critically celebrated rappers in the game, the project spans 33 tracks and was produced by NYC's producer supercollective SURF GANG. Harrison, one of SURF GANG's founding producers alongside evilgiane and Eera, laid much of the foundation for the project's production, a role that should come as no surprise given his past work with the likes of Niontay and Earl Sweatshirt ("Cressidaway! / TPGeek"), MIKE ("Belly 1"), and Veeze ("Luve the Tour"). While the project has remained a secret until now, this collection of songs has been many years in the making, a fact their respective cult fan bases have been acutely aware of through a trail of sporadic snippets and hints from the artists. Alongside the album announcement, Earl, MIKE, and SURF GANG announce their joint headline tour and share the album's lead double single and music video for "Minty // Earth."

Arriving on the heels of 2025 albums from both rappers - MIKE's Showbiz! and Earl's Live, Laugh, Love - POMPEII // UTILITY plays like a victory lap that traces their friendship back over more than a decade. In fact, Earl was one of the first to champion MIKE back in 2016 while he was making waves in NYC's underground hip-hop circles with the [sLUms] collective and in his own right with his cult classic album MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE. Since then, the pair have developed a loyal working relationship, tallying notable collaborations like "allstar" on MIKE's 2020 album weight of the world, "Sentry" on Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist's collab album VOIR DIRE. While MIKE and Earl have orbited it selectively, they haven't fully lived inside the SURF GANG universe until now, making POMPEII // UTILITY feel like a full-circle collision of worlds.

At its core, POMPEII // UTILITY embodies a shared ethos that has always been a part of MIKE, Earl, and SURF GANG's creative DNA: collaboration as community-building. It evokes African and diasporic traditions where art and story are collective, iterative, relational - part of a larger whole. From top to bottom, there was a clear concerted effort to keep every angle of the project within the family. All of the art for this project, from single covers to the album cover, is pulled from work by sculptor and Earl Sweatshirt's childhood friend, Sharif Farrag.

It finds Earl and MIKE at their most comfortable, teeing up moments such as "NOT 4TW," where MIKE is part reflecting, part flexing that Europe feels like it's down the street now, setting the tone for a project that sounds like it was undeniably fun to make. Sentiments like that mark a significant shift in form from the introspective and melancholic themes and lyrics that defined both of their early works.

Earl & MIKE's chemistry on POMPEII // UTILITY is unique: where two rappers going head-to-head might otherwise incite rivalry or comparison, this project offers something rooted and communal - a shared understanding of care, joy, grief, process, and responsibility to something larger than yourself. The album's title and conceptual framework draw from the eruption of Pompeii, with themes of building and destruction reflected in both the artwork and ethos. During one particularly baked studio session, the energy in the room slipped into a haze where they describe feeling "frozen in time," sparking the image of Pompeii.

Like the album's double LP format, the music video directed by Ian Lopez and Richard Phillip Smith is structured as a two-part experience - MIKE in the first half with "Minty," Earl in the second with "Earth" - presenting a microcosm of what's to follow in the remaining 31 tracks. The video's 3:25-minute runtime only marks the beginning of seeing Earl, MIKE, and SURF GANG together as they gear up to take the album on the road with their Home on the Range tour, which includes 26 US stops starting this June, before taking it overseas to Europe. Artist presale tickets will be available beginning Wednesday, March 11th at 10 am local time (password: UTILITY), and Spotify presale tickets go on sale Thursday, March 12th at 10am local time (password THEHARP). Tickets will go on sale to the public on Friday, March 13th at 10 am local time

Upcoming Live Dates
4/24 - Mexico City, MX @ Foro Indie Rocks

6/9 - Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium $
6/10 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium $
6/12 - Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre $
6/13 - Albuquerque, NM @ Historic El Rey Theatre $
6/15 - Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex $
6/16 - Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom $
6/18 - Kansas City, MO @ The Truman $
6/19 - Omaha, NE @ The Admiral Theatre $
6/20 - Madison, WI @ The Sylvee $
6/22 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave $
6/23 - St. Louis, MO @ The Hawthorn $
6/24 - Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room @ ONC $
6/26 - Cleveland, OH @ Rock & Rock Hall of Fame $
6/27 - Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! $
6/28 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts $
6/30 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre $
7/1 - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom $
7/2 - South Deerfield, MA @ Summerstage at Tree House Brewing $
7/7 - Providence, RI @ The Strand Ballroom $
7/8 - New York, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount $
7/9 - Baltimore, MD @ Nevermore Hall $
7/13 - Richmond, VA @ The National $
7/14 - Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa $
7/15 - Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore CLT $
7/17 - Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz $
7/18 - Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues Myrtle Beach $

8/7 - Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival €
8/22 - Salisbury, UK @ We Out Here £
8/25 - Glasgow, UK @ o2 Academy Glasgow $
8/26 - Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street $
8/27 - Paris, France @ Bourse De Commerce £
8/28 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City $
8/29 - London, UK @ All Points East £
8/31 - London, UK @ o2 Forum Kentish Town $
9/2 - Bristol, UK @ Prospect Building $
9/3 - Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome $
9/6 - Paris, France @ Elysee Montmartre $
9/8 - Tilburg, Netherlands @ 013 Poppodium $

$ - with Harrison [SURF GANG]
€ - Earl Sweatshirt only
£ - MIKE only with the Band of the Century