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Who is Olu? A guide to EarthGang's Johnny Venus
Meet Olu, also known as Johnny Venus, the EarthGang co-founder, producer, and Spillage Village builder.
EarthGang is a duo, and fans usually meet the two members through their voices before their names. Olu is the one who started it all. He records as Johnny Venus, and his given name is Olu Onyemachi Dakarai Fann.
The founder
Olu and his partner WowGr8 met as ninth graders on a school field trip at Benjamin Elijah Mays High School in Atlanta. According to the group's history, it was Olu who later approached WowGr8 about forming a group. That was 2008, and EarthGang has been the two of them ever since.
He also helped build the larger crew around the duo. Olu and WowGr8 founded Spillage Village, the Atlanta collective that grew to include JID, Hollywood JB, Jurdan Bryant, Mereba, 6lack, and Benji. They recruited JID after hearing his first mixtape around Hampton University in 2010. Read our Spillage Village guide.
Behind the boards
Olu isn't only a rapper. He is credited as a producer on Mirrorland, the duo's 2019 Dreamville debut, and he was one of the main producers on Spillage Village's 2020 album Spilligion. If you've noticed how carefully EarthGang records are put together, with interludes, skits, and songs that flow into each other, part of that comes from Olu working on the music as well as the verses.
The storyteller
Olu has spoken often about what the music is supposed to feel like. When Perfect Fantasy came out in 2024, he described it as a celebration of free creativity, drawing on the singers, anime, musicians, and producers the duo grew up loving. In 2026, he and WowGr8 took that storytelling further by writing their own comic book, EarthGang and The Wheel of Fate #1.
Johnny Venus, solo
Johnny Venus appeared on Consequence's list of upcoming October 2026 releases with a project called The 11th Hour. Treat that as tentative until the group's official channels confirm a date and tracklist. We'll update this page when they do.
Where to hear Olu at his best
- Mirrorland (2019): his production work and his most theatrical verses.
- Spilligion (2020): Olu producing and rapping alongside the whole collective.
- Perfect Fantasy (2024): the duo's first independent album and the end of a long concept run.
Next, meet the other half of the group: who is WowGr8?