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billy woods

While I'm aware that billy woods has built a highly revered hip-hop catalogue spanning more than twenty years, as both a solo artist and as one half of Armand Hammer, I never gave his music a listen. I tried to change that back in May with a few passive spins of his horror-themed ninth solo album, but it wasn't until I got in the spooky spirit that I began to listen more closely. Upon further inspection, I found a lot to like about the project. woods' style alone I thought was quite captivating. His verbose, detailed writing is dizzying, and his nonchalant, conversational delivery mixed with a seemingly freestyled rhythm make for a rather unorthodox flow. The lyrical themes are also thought-provoking, contrasting very real horrors -- the struggle, exploitation, cruelty, and violence that black communities have historically suffered -- with campy b-film frights.

The production is supplied by numerous producers, some of which should be familiar. El-P who's instantly recognizable brand of grimy, underworld boom-bap forms the basis of Corinthians. The Alchemist supplies one of his most mysterious sample flips on Counterclockwise. Frequent collaborator Kenny Segal also delivers one of my favourite instrumentals on Misery, a film-noir piece of jazz rap that features tight snares, sizzling cymbals, and smoky saxophones. There are many other producers that are unknown to me, however, each instrumental is a fitting piece in this unsettling anthology.

The front half of the project is loaded with some great moments. STAR87 has perhaps the most overtly hair-raising instrumental with the constantly swirling dissonant string pads and incessantly ringing phones. Lyrically, woods is haunted by things he had to do to survive, and also exhibits a bit of guilt over how he was lucky to rise out of that struggle. On BLK XMAS, woods and Bruiser Wolf tackle extreme poverty. Bruiser Wolf's goofy inflection has led me to write him off in the past, however, his clever examination of the material and systemic conditions that trap people in a vicious cycle really impressed me. woods' harrowing point of view observes a neighbouring family getting evicted from their home. He expresses shame in scrounging through the belongings they left behind. Things get really dark on Waterproof Mascara, a track about domestic abuse and the generational ripple effects it can have. The imagery on this track is deeply troubling with revelations that include not trusting anyone outside your immediate family, an implication that the cycles of violence may have been passed down, and envisioning his kids finding joy in his self-imposed demise in response. If that wasn't upsetting enough, this is all scored by the sound of a weeping woman.

Around the halfway point, we get Maquiladoras, a track with ominous pianos and periodically coherent TV channel surfing. I'm not a huge fan of al.divino's verse as I find his voice to be gratingly throaty, but woods' verse is some of my favourite writing on the record. It's laden with amputation imagery, where depending on the context in each stanza, could represent the erasure of one's culture from forced assimilation, the socio-economic handicaps as a result of systematic oppression, or leaving a piece of yourself behind in order to move on from trauma. It's one of the most well constructed, laser focused verses I've heard in recent memory. Beyond this point, I find the production becomes a little less distinct, and therefore I don't find myself engaging as deeply with those tracks. However, the record doesn't come to a close without one last standout, and that's Lead Paint Test. The instrumental is incredibly mournful with somber piano chords and distant, echoing trumpets. All three verses from woods, E L U C I D, and Cavalier take a walkthrough their childhood homes while reliving painful memories. Their imperfect upbringings are mirrored in the cracked plaster, exposed brick, and rickety doors.

For my first billy woods project, I find myself thoroughly impressed. His writing is rigorous, of deep substance, and begs to be deciphered. The instrumentals he has curated from an eclectic roster of producers really breathe life into his artistic vision. Perhaps a little more curation could have been exercised in paring down the album to its more essential moments. The album does run a little long and the first half is definitely more memorable than the second half. Regardless, this was still a very enjoyable listen. If billy woods comes through with another highly conceptual project with fitting production, I can see myself returning to his music.