released: may 9th, 2025

genre: hip-hop / experimental

from: new york, usa

label: backwoodz studios

i’ll be honest, i don’t listen to much hip-hop these days. i make a few exceptions, of course, and billy woods is probably the artist that excities me the most. he is an important poet and writer of the 21st century. someone who’s piercing and cynical but accurate perception of the world around him makes his albums immersive and oddly cathartic listens. all of the angry, desparate energy he carries is channelled through self-relfective and honest lyricsm, both about his own life, and the world around us. he speaks to how colonialism has destroyed econonies, societies and communities back in africa and in the states through sinister fictional stories that fit within horror-esque, dystopian stories that are just so poignant and revealing to the state of the world currently. and things are getting worse. golliwog is his first album since maps with kenny segal, and his first solo album with multiple producers since 2019’s terror management. the 18-track album includes production from steel tipped dove, conductor williams, kenny segal, sadhugold, preservation, the alchemist, el-p, dj haram, shabaka hutchings, saint abdullah, jeff markey, meddiah musik, ant, willie green and human error club. let me tell you something, this album has some of the most immersive and claustrophobic production i’ve heard yet from woods. when i say claustrophobic, i mean that it feels empowering and dominant, at times over woods’ lyricism to a point where i feel like his words get suffocated by the desolate sonic soundscape each producer paints throughout. every song is sequenced perfectly, each song, each story flowing effortlessly into one another, the world that woods, the features, and the producers build continues to grow and complete itself. i am floored, even as i listen to the album now as i write, i’m just floored at woods’ incredible ability to paint these vivid, disorienting, scenes and stories. comparing his writing to other art forms, this album and the dystopian surrealist world he creates in general through his music are amongst some of the coolest, most interesting and innovative pieces of art, and dare i say literature, on music, that’s ever been made. his discography is insanely good, and to be honest i’m not surprised anymore that he doesn’t run out of ideas for narratives because each project carries so many different stories and paintings of degenerate life, all at the hands of governments failures and the colonial realities of oppression beings face. it’s disgusting. but yeah, there’s more to say about golliwog, but won’t get too carried away because frankly i need more time to digest it, and i’m sure there are other analyses speak to some of the themes in more depth. i might go full adhd here who knows.

anyways, the way the album starts sounds like you’re walking into a broken home, weird rumbling sounds and door creeks and an eerie, horror-esque beat. “jumpscare” produced by steel tipped dove really sets the tone. the beach change is crazy, and woods comes through with some piercing lyricism. the english language is violence, I hotwired it / i got a hold of the master’s tools and got dialed in” speaks on the british empire’s levels of violence that permeate and seep into the language we all speak. something i’ve felt listening to this album is that i feel like woods is rapping differently as a whole compared to other albums. there’s more piercing, spoken-word esque moments that with lyrics that really shake you. “blk xmas” featuring bruiser wolf (who, by the way, delivers one of the most animated, 90s sports announcer-like flows i’ve heard in a minute) and produced by sadhugold, is an example of this fierce and heavy delivery. the way he starts his verse is so matter-of-fact and delivered in a way that’s simply him just talking to you, no flow, nothing. it’s the desperation in his voice when he says it so bluntly that gets me. or on “waterproof mascara”. what the fuck, preservation? that beat is one of the eeriest, creepiest things i’ve listened to on a hip-hop track, and reminds me to go listen to aethiopes again when i have the time. the way he bluntly describes his mother dealing with the death of his father, the references to suicide, and the frightening beat, makes it a highlight on the album. his short but chilling verse over shabaka hutchings’ earthly wind instrumentation on “all these worlds are yours” featuring elucid and dj haram is genuinely chilling. likely referencing drone attack footage, it’s a haunting picture of life on the ground of war, or at least on land occupied by another regime. elucid’s striking verse and how shabaka’s production fuses perfectly with dj haram’s part is crazy to me. woods’ verse on “maquiladoras” is devastating yet so poignant as well – “fanon said self-amputation how all this is created / the irrational rationalizations of the racists (make america great ag—) / the amputee says accept it, there’s no escaping / accept the prosthetics / they give ill-fitted limbs as gifts and insist you can only live in the present”. the fact that people have to sacrifice pieces of ourselves to live in this world is actually so sad. and just isn’t right. we shouldn’t. free everyone. and yet, the desperation in his voice throughout this verse, over a heavy, dystopian beat produced by saint abdullah and featuring a disorienting and compact verse from al.divino, paints a dystopian and hopeless picture on the state of humanity. the soulful and jazzy “a dolla full of pins” featuring yolanda watson is a stunning track too, with the first half of it produced by jeff markey, while messiah musik takes the soul and beauty of the track and distorts it into a wailing and overwhelming beat, as he spits “golliwog showed up on the shelf, pop up like a kid’s book”. referencing the babadook, he speaks to how this symbolic object of racism can be held in children’s books, and at the hand of children themselves. getting indoctrinated by racist and colonialist ideology from a young age is a scary thing but it happens, in the states especially. the colonial project continues, and hope is running dry. i’m so glad i didn’t listen to “blk zmby”, produced by stell tipped dove, when it came out as a single, because knowing me i would have overplayed it like crazy, and hearing it in the context of the album for the first time was special. the psychedelic and desert-rock influence of the beat is incredible, and woods opens with menace – “staggerin’ post-colonial african zombie state chase the people into the waves”. colonialism and capitalism has caused african leaders over the years to seek power and exploit it with the influence of their colonizers, doing it all at the expense of the freedoms of the people they claim to lead. the bop and rhythm of “make no mistake”, produced by messiah musik is infectious, and love how he calls out his haters – “stutter, drop, dip, euro-step, when they say it’s off-beat, that’s when i know i got ’em on skates”. the beat on “lead paint test”, produced by willie green and featuring elucid and cavalier is another phenomenal track, with all three emcees giving their versions of home, both in a metaphysical and physical way, telling stories of their own traumas and how they’ve been able to deal with the weight of them while redefining what home means for them. the closer “dislocated” features a stunning, string-led musical piece by human error club, while elucid and woods share their introspections on governmental surveillance, or rather an alternate reality where they can’t be located and free from surveillance-related oppression. out of all closers on woods’ albums, this is one of the more stunning and angelic tracks.

there’s still so much to say, i know i haven’t even mentioned all of the tracks but a shoutout to the el-p beat on “corinthians” and that killer despot verse, conductor williams’ heavy and punchy “star87”, and the overpowering, rumbling yet off kilter “pitchforks & halos” produced by kenny segal. and the alchemist came through with this weird, prog rock sample that upon first listen was a little difficult to get, but with further listens has grown on me. overall, golliwog is a hopeless and desparate portrayal of this world as we currently experience it. with poetic, often tragic accounts of life but with some humour to lighten the pain, woods is able to create this hypnotic body of work that captures the angst and pain he feels along with his people. it makes for a disorienting, depressing but cathartic and important listen. i wanted to end on a quote by american historian and academic robin d.g. kelley, from his 2002 work “beyond the “real” world, or why black radicals need to wake up and start dreaming”, and speaks to the importance of surrealism and imagination as a way to build new futures through ideas.

“surrealism is the exaltation of freedom, revolt, imagination and love. . . . [it] is above
all a revolutionary movement. its basic aim is to lessen and eventually to completely
resolve the contradiction between everyday life and our wildest dreams. by definition
subversive, surrealist thought and action are intended not only to discredit and destroy
the forces of repression, but also to emancipate desire and supply it with new poetic
weapons. . . . beginning with the abolition of imaginative slavery, it advances to the
creation of a free society in which everyone will be a poet—a society in which everyone
will be able to develop his or her potentialities fully and freely”. – robin d. g. kelley

while woods’ worlds are a lot more cynical and realist, speaking on the horrors of the systems of oppression that keep us from living properly, his contributions to music and literature provide an alternative imagination for the types of stories we tell, unique takes on issues relating to his people, and metaphors for our collective suffering. his music represents the foundation for our collective imagination and dreams, by being brutally and unapologetically honest about the horrors of the world and using the english language, hot wiring it, and painting revealing soundscapes and narratives that tell vivid, interconnected stories. golliwog is a stunning body of work and one that continues to prove why billy woods is one of the greatest writers of his generation.

the album: