Right now, the New York underground rap fixture billy woods has a decent claim on the Best Rapper Alive throne. He might not want that, and he doesn't have the kind of widespread fame that such a title usually implies. But he's been doing head-wrecking, inspiring work for a long time, and everything he does is at least worth a listen. Plenty of woods' greatest work has been as half of Armand Hammer or as the person behind the Backwoodz Studioz label. He's also an increasingly huge presence on other people's records, whether that means his Backwoodz labelmates or non-rap entities like Shabaka and Panchiko. Even with all that, woods' greatest work might come in the form of his solo albums, and he's just announced another one of those.
It's been nearly two years since billy woods and producer Kenny Segal released the collaborative album Maps, and now woods is unveiling his forthcoming solo LP GOLLIWOG. (Usually, I don't respect the convention of all-caps album titles, but capitalization clearly matters to woods.) A golliwog is an old ragdoll that looks like a racist caricature, like the one on the cover art above. In a press release, woods says, "When I was nine years old, I wrote a story about an evil golliwog. My mother read it and told me it was overly derivative and needed some work. Here we are."
The production credits on GOLLIWOG are mind-boggling, even if many of the people involved are past billy woods collaborators. The list of producers includes El-P, the Alchemist, Shabaka Hutchings, Conductor Williams, DJ Haram, Preservation, Steel Tipped Dove, Messiah Musik, Sadhugold, Willie Green, Jeff Markey, Saint Abdullah, Human Error Club, and Atmosphere's Ant. The guests include billy woods' Armand Hammer partner ELUCID on three tracks, as well as Bruiser Wolf, Despot, Cavalier, al.divino, and Yolanda Watson. The longtime woods collaborator Kenny Segal produced the lead single "Misery," a jazz-damaged two-minute reverie about getting lost in sex. Below, check out "Misery" and the GOLLIWOG tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Jumpscare"
02 "STAR87"
03 "Misery"
04 "BLK XMAS" (Feat. Bruiser Wolf)
05 "Waterproof Mascara"
06 "Counterclockwise"
07 "Corinthians" (Feat. Despot)
08 "Pitchforks & Halos"
09 "All These Worlds Are Yours" (Feat. ELUCID)
10 "Maquiladoras" (Feat. al.divino)
11 "A Doll Fulla Pins" (Feat. Yolanda Watson)
12 "Golgotha"
13 "Cold Sweat"
14 "BLK ZMBY"
15 "Make No Mistake"
16 "Born Alone"
17 "Lead Paint Test" (Feat. ELUCID & Cavalier)
18 "Dislocated" (Feat. ELUCID)
GOLLIWOG is out 5/9 on Backwoodz Studioz.
