Stone Island Shows Up To Support Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and SURF GANG's 'POMPEII / UTILITY'
Hosting a series of listening parties, producing special edition vinyls, and championing intimate panels for the trifecta’s debut collab project.
Stone Island has always closely aligned its brand ethos with the music industry. In the past year, the Italian imprint has doubled down on its affinity for the sonic scene, both partnering with musicians – Dave, for one – on wardrobe curation and custom design, and most notably, pushing its Stone Island Sound arm into the conversation more than ever before.
After a year of successful listening parties and DJ sets and fresh off the heels of a Miami Music Week in-store event with Apple Music, Stone Island has situated itself alongside underground rap, specifically in a capacity that pays tribute to both the old and new guards of the space. Stone Island Sound chose to champion Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE‘s first-ever, highly anticipated, SURF GANG-produced joint album, POMPEII/UTILITY – and not just in a passive, showing support on socials manner.
Using Stone Island Sound as a vessel of accessibility, the label has brought the record down to the ground level, hosting an intimate series of listening parties and Q&A panels in support of the release. Going down in just three cities – Los Angeles, New York City, and London – the listening parties are not, by any means, a sardined scene. Rather, each of the free, fan events is held at a Stone Island flagship store in each city, first-come, first-served, with about 70 people maximum allowed into the “listening room” level of the store.
A SURF GANG DJ set opens the event, with Harrison, evilgiane, and Eera behind the decks, before the Q&A session begins. giane, Harrison, Earl, and MIKE sit alongside the Stone Island team as well as Sharif Farrag – the visual artist behind the project’s cover art – to field questions directly from the audience.
Not to mention, each member of the audience received a limited-edition Stone Island POMPEII / UTILITY vinyl for free upon entry.
In aligning itself with the release of POMPEII / UTILITY, Stone Island makes it clear that it’s not only tapped in with the evolving sonic zeitgeist, but more specifically, that it champions the art of the underground scene.
Peep the limited-edition vinyl above and expect the next listening party to go down tomorrow night, April 3, in London.
