Billy Woods Releases New Album “Maps”
Fans of hip-hop across the globe can rejoice, as New York based rapper billy woods returns with a brand new album. “Maps” is a collaboration between woods and and Kenny Segal, released on May 5th.
The two have collaborated in the past, garnering much acclaim in the hip-hop world with 2019’s “Hiding Places”. After that first explosive collaboration, the two artists needed time to gather fresh experience to transmute into new music.
Woods says, “We needed to go on other journeys, artistic and otherwise, to come back and do something fresh”. On “Maps,” the duo tackle a less spoken on element of the rap game: the actual touring experience.
Life’s a Trip
Taking the listeners on tour with them across their countless stories and anecdotes, the worldly appeal of Woods is brought to the forefront. Both Jamaican and Zimbabwean, woods spent much of his youth split between two continents.
This worldly understanding allows for woods to pull strange dialects, cadences, and occasionally wholesale segments in other languages into his repertoire. Additionally, these small details breathe life into the images being painted with the artist’s words.
Don’t expect to follow along so easily though. True to his experience, woods tells his stories through vignettes, fragmented conversations, and constantly shuffling perspectives. These stories can range from flirtatious and referential on songs like “Waiting Around” to frustrated and cagey on tracks like “Blue Smoke”.
Woods isn’t the only one with an almost omnidirectional scope in terms of inspiration. Similarly, the production, courtesy of Kenny Segal, pulls no punches.
Kenny develops soundscapes with frantic beat switches, intense jazz breakdowns, and even the meandering longing traditional in the blues. Instrumentation varies from digital and electronic to analog and bespoke.
The duo bring us along on their journey with the expert help from a great deal of a talented friends. Features on the album include artists like: ELUCID, Aesop Rock, Danny Brown, and many more.
For anyone who interested in the bleeding edge of hip hop innovation, and sounds that you certainly have never heard before, this album is worth a listen. “Going on tour” with Kenny and billy is by no means a solely joyous experience, but it is singular and well worth your time.