Updated Jun 10Armand Hammer 🦾 🔨
Bio:
Armand Hammer is a New York based hip-hop duo consisting of MC/producer ELUCID and rapper billy woods. The duo’s 2013 debut, Race Music, made waves as a then-rare pairing of two established underground artists. That album was quickly followed with an EP; Furtive Movements in 2014. Despite burgeoning solo careers both artists continued to collaborate over the following years; making appearances on each other’s work and performing together, but fans would have to wait four years for a new full length. Armand Hammer released ROME in November of 2017 to effusive praise, and then doubled down with Paraffin in 2018. Like opposite sides of a coin, the two albums are connected, yet radically different in their design. Rome and Paraffin brought a wave of critical acclaim, cementing ELUCID and woods place as two of the most vital voices in the genre today. Now they are back in 2020 with their fourth LP, Shrines, a powerful, vibrant record unlike anything else out there. When it comes to progressive rap music, Armand Hammer is the tip of the spear.
NEW PROJECT:
Armand Hammer x Alchemist - "Haram"
Haram is a mercurial collaboration between incendiary rap duo Armand Hammer, and living legend The Alchemist. For the first time ELUCID and billy woods have crafted an album with a single producer and the result is extraordinary. With their unmatched penchant for stirring imagery and incisive storytelling, the two rappers dive into an ocean of Alchemist’s creation: warmly inviting on the surface, black and bone-crushingly cold at depth. Haram is a collection of the profane and the pure; a reminder that that which is forbidden is also sacrosanct.
The artists are joined by their friends and fellow travelers on this journey. KAYANA’s golden voice upps the wattage on “Black Sunlight,” while Fielded’s sultry alto gets chopped and screwed on “Aubergine”. Earl Sweatshirt makes a sun-soaked appearance, while Curly Castro and Amani mix like ice and salt on Brooklyn sidewalks and Quelle Chris, as always, finds a pocket all his own. Still, there is a natural rapport that belies the New York-to-Los Angeles-and-back nature of the project, allowing Haram to be more than the sum of its parts, however impressive those parts may be. This isn’t just the genre’s most insistent contemporary voices paired with arguably its best producer. This is when you buy a beautiful house only to discover, hidden behind a heavy bookcase, a stairway twisting up and away into the darkness.
Discography
Music Videos
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Media Links
Research Papers/think pieces/Articles
Interviews
Podcast
Reviews
ESSENTIAL READS:
thoughtontracks.com/tag/billy-woods
reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/dchdoe/a_lyrical_analysis_of_billy_woods_a_day_in_a_week
reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/ejhbp0/album_of_the_year_3_billy_woods_kenny_segal
syffal.com/interviews/billy-woods
tinymixtapes.com/features/elucid?page=show
hiphopblog.co.uk/2019/09/14/armand-hammer-interview
daily.bandcamp.com/lifetime-achievement/elucid-lifetime-achievement
anhedonicheadphones.blogspot.com/2019/10/album-review-billy-woods-terror.html
google.com/amp/s/www.thefader.com/2019/04/09/billy-woods-hiding-places-review/amp
May 1, 2020
May 1, 2020·3 repliesIn for billy.
If someone can translate Elucid, I'll be waiting lol
May 1, 2020Bless god for this thread
New armand hammer june1
- May 1, 2020·1 replythevoyce
In for billy.
If someone can translate Elucid, I'll be waiting lol
He is not that cryptic check valley of grace
May 1, 2020In on this, finally really got into Billy's music last summer
- May 1, 2020·1 replysabbatical_
He is not that cryptic check valley of grace
What is he talking about in Carnies?
- May 1, 2020thevoyce
What is he talking about in Carnies?
Check his solo material its not too cryptic
May 1, 2020s*** count me in
what a coincidence i just ran thru the discog this week
May 1, 2020@marcusg just gonna make all my favourite threads then? Alright
yolk 🌂May 1, 2020
- May 1, 2020
Get in here y’all
- May 1, 2020
Elucid's added some stuff on streaming in the last few days btw. S*** Dont Rhyme No More deluxe, Seership, and Every Egg I Cracked Today was Double Yolked.
May 1, 2020ayeeee
- May 2, 2020
May 2, 2020Excellent idea sir
May 2, 2020One of my friends is obsessed w Billy Woods lol. He sorta put me on Armand Hammer; Paraffin is great but I don’t care for Rome at the moment
May 2, 2020Billy
May 2, 2020·1 reply@marcusg bringing the heat again. Got into Billy Woods last year, absolutely incredible stuff.
May 2, 2020·1 replytop three
- May 2, 2020Jerry Seinfeld
@marcusg bringing the heat again. Got into Billy Woods last year, absolutely incredible stuff.
King
same here! Still have to fully digest a lot of his albums - May 2, 2020·1 reply
The young legend @YoungNastyShawty interviewed woods if y’all haven’t checked it
May 2, 2020·1 reply!https://youtu.be/Gc2aD1H9DpAMarcus is DustThe young legend @YoungNastyShawty interviewed woods if y’all haven’t checked it
This was fire cause I’m sure nobody expected me to get a interview wit him lmao
- May 2, 2020·1 replyYoungNastyShawty
This was fire cause I’m sure nobody expected me to get a interview wit him lmao
I hope this is taken constructively and not as a knock, but I was pretty disappointed with this interview when I listened to it a while back, especially given I didn't exactly expect to see it happen.
I understand you've mentioned in others that your aim is always to be conversational in style as opposed to just barraging them with questions about their latest album/lyrics etc. And that's fair, if executed correctly, but in this interview in particular I felt as though it resulted in feeling disjointed and meandering.
I'm not sure how much preparedness is put in for each and every one of your interviews, I assume it can be tough given the amount you try and do, but spending precious time on why he covers his face feels wasteful given that its a question asked and answered so often before.
Ultimately billy's a fascinating figure and he has a lot of interesting things to say. For a 30 minute interview this didn't really manage to extract that in my view.
Would be interested to know your thoughts now with hindsight. As well as just what you (independent of the listeners) look to get out of these interviews, and why you think your style is conducive to that.
- May 2, 2020·1 replyDwindlingSun
I hope this is taken constructively and not as a knock, but I was pretty disappointed with this interview when I listened to it a while back, especially given I didn't exactly expect to see it happen.
I understand you've mentioned in others that your aim is always to be conversational in style as opposed to just barraging them with questions about their latest album/lyrics etc. And that's fair, if executed correctly, but in this interview in particular I felt as though it resulted in feeling disjointed and meandering.
I'm not sure how much preparedness is put in for each and every one of your interviews, I assume it can be tough given the amount you try and do, but spending precious time on why he covers his face feels wasteful given that its a question asked and answered so often before.
Ultimately billy's a fascinating figure and he has a lot of interesting things to say. For a 30 minute interview this didn't really manage to extract that in my view.
Would be interested to know your thoughts now with hindsight. As well as just what you (independent of the listeners) look to get out of these interviews, and why you think your style is conducive to that.
I honestly haven’t watched that interview back, the same way I dont watch my other interviews but I don’t remember asking too much about him covering his face even tho I maybe wrong.
He was a interesting guy to interview tho. Not the most easiest guy to converse with. He wasn’t hard either but, it wasn’t instant chemistry which is what you are probably talking about. He seemed a bit more lively before the interview tbh. I enjoyed doing the interview a lot tho.
And there’s no real reason I do the conversation style, that’s just naturally what I developed into tbh. I think that style works pretty good for me, especially when the person I’m interviewing has bought in.
But about the billy interview, u just remember prolly not flowing like the rest of my interviews because of awkwardness within that interview + we couldn’t see each other to really gauge emotion and context to certain stuff. But from what I remember I still really enjoyed doing that interview
