The English language is violence, I hotwired it

Fantastic album. Few of the songs were so intense I was legit tearing up a bit.

Ah man I am so f***ing excited to spin this Woods

Counterclockwise verse insane

everytime we get a new Despot feature I get reminded of how we're just never getting an album from him

this bruiser wolf verse is amazing lol
feel like since aethiopes woods' album ideas have been kinda dissapointing as it feels like its been harder to say what makes this album uniquely worth ur time. aethiopes was incredible.

waterproof mascara oof that beat is unbelievable

Sheesh new MIKE and billy the same week

ik its really soon but has anyone figured out what this album's concept is i lowkey wanna know before i go in cuz the past two woods albums i was underhwelmed when i figured it out

A question that often gets trotted out at the world’s most boring parties is: “Is there any artist working today whose discography has the same multi-album, banger-after-banger consistency as—” and here you can sub in the name of any legacy act with five or more classic albums to their name. The answer to that tired question is “billy woods,” and the stunning GOLLIWOG does not end that streak. In fact, it may even be his best to date: woods has long been one of the strongest lyricists in contemporary music, but where previous outings thrived on his ability to craft bars dense with hundreds of layers meaning, on GOLLIWOG what floors you are the moments of straight narrative. His verse at the end of “BLK XMAS” is so meticulously crafted, it’s impossible to pluck any single line out—you need to actually stop, sit, and listen to the whole story of woods’ evicted neighbors unfold and be dazzled by the way he pulls you from one point to the next. Ditto the chilling “Waterproof Mascara,” about the death of his father, with whom he had an ambivalent relationship: “Watched my mother cry from the top of the stairs/ Scared/ When it came through the bars, I covered my ears/ Half hoping you-know-who wouldn’t die, then he did/ Surprise!/ Careful what you wish for, might just get that s***.” woods sets the scene impeccably in every single song, cramming deep detail into each line to make the message burrow its way under your skin. (In “Lead Paint,” a dead boy’s shoes have a deliberately discomfiting effect.) The production matches the mood—grim, downcast, turbulent, and it envelops you completely; once woods starts talking, you don’t want him to stop until the journey ends. The stunning consistency of woods’s catalog is likely to prompt a second familiar music question: “OK, which record should I start with?” The answer is that it doesnt matter, as long as you start.

–J. Edward Keyes

only on my first listen but putting it over aethiopes or HARAM is a bit nutty to me

f*** that this albums concept is amazing

can u brief me on what youve pieced together im a bit lost rn
like i just dont wanna figure out "its about travelling!" or somethign again

feel like listening is the best way to determine it. So far i’m loving this project about halfway through. Next couple listens are when the layers unwrap

Feel like thats base level what maps is about, a lot more to it than just that imo

idk i just found aethiopes hiding places brass and haram so much more engaging thats my bar for him now

Totally understandable theyre otherworldly works.

Maps hit me different so i have a deep appreciation for it & its many themes. So far loving Golliwog, excited to read into it some more. Deff worth checking out if youre a fan of those older albums

Golliwog reexplores a story he wrote as a child about an evil Golliwog. Woods says he’s always been fascinated by horror story collections, citing Mariana Enríquez’s Things We Lost in the Fire and Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye — the latter threads together short stories with a cat who finds themselves in every story. In his new work, Woods casts the racist, rag-doll-like caricature known as a Golliwog as the connecting overseer of the project.

“I think a lot of horror is social commentary on what people are scared of,” Woods says. He gives an example of Rosemary’s Baby, which is about “an evil cult manipulating this woman to have their baby,” but also speaks to a woman being stripped of her humanity in a misogynistic society. He also references Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Reductively, it’s about a haunted house, but more aptly, it’s a portrait of slavery. “I think that when something is well written enough or hits enough different points of social commentary, people try to move it out of that horror space and it becomes a thriller or whatever, which is fine,” Woods resolves. “But all of these works of art ultimately are about the same sorts of things.”

bet good to hear, ill invest my time in it then

oh interesting! yeah and i know the golliwog dolls were the caricature black face dolls. the stephen king play on christine was great. bet

Dead man's shoes, double day to rock 'em
Slip 'em on smooth, they gonna fit no problem
They always do
It's like they were made for your two feets
Kids laid out in the streets
No kicks, limbs askew
That's how they did my cousin in '86
Auntie saw it on the news
He had one on, one off was by the bare foot that she knew
My wife said the baby feet look just like you and I thought about that
When they went to sleep, I cried too
Dog eared Timberland boot
Sauconys on a Brooklyn stoop, in pretty good shape
Toothbrush the suede
Mouth full of toothpaste lookin' in thе mirror, like
"I know my day comin', I pray it's not today."
Seen 'em coming like, "Hold on hold on wait!"
Doctor rеad the X-Rays while you read the doctor's face
I rock a clean pair of socks every day, just in case

man this dude is just on another level…as a writer it just blows my mind

Haram was the last project of his I thoroughly enjoyed.

the preservation song im trying really hard to figure out what hes getting at

Assuming we got another masterpiece, he's on an insane run.

Wrong side of history bro