Billy Woods
Today, I Wrote Nothing
Billy Woods needs help redefining what writing nothing looks like, because his "nothing" is a verbose full-length sermon of melancholy street hymns that slowly drip deep into your primary motor cortex.
History Will Absolve Me was my first introduction into the mind of woods, and his street corner conversational style, and I was slow to dive in. woods is from a similar school as Gza, Aesop Rock and MF Doom in that he never wastes a word and it takes more than casual listens to really appreciate his pieces. None of this was bad for me because, while I can at times enjoy Drake and Big Sean, my bread and butter is shit that makes me rewind or keep the album on repeat to grasp it.
His Armand Hammer cohort Elucid not only shows up spitting his own verbal graffiti, but lends production for billy to get 6ft deep on, as does Messiah Musik, Busdriver & Aesop Rock, and Blockhead to name a few.
The Aesop Rock & Busdriver produced "U Boats" which features Elucid, is a growling, rowdy crime noir ride through snatched Jordan's and bloodied streets. Elucid and woods continue to prove that while RTJ are the critics and blogosphere darlings, Armand Hammer are truly one of the nastiest parings ever! "Slow Week" is fucking grimmmmmmmy and heavy as Fuck!!! "That's what i get for doing the right thing, this shit here better work like skin lightening cream" is a fucking expertly delivered line. Good god I love billy. Where as "Flatlands" is a trip through fear, violence, and paranoia that seem sadly so relevant in an age where folks are being gunned down based on skin color assumptions, and the vilification of the black community.
24 fucking songs can sound lofty and intimidating in a world with A.D.D., but nothing is really longer than 2 minutes because billy chooses every word wisely, and paints precise, vivid pictures with the time he's given. It helps that everyone who provided billy with beats hit him with some lofi, dusted out looped up grime that combine with his stark perceptions perfectly.
billy is a modern inner city griot in the same vein as Roc Marciano, Ka, Prodigy, Gza and others who have mastered painting the grittiest, truest pictures of what life in the harsh city is really like. He takes you on tours through poverty, crime, racism, oppression and desperation without seeming preachy and overly heady, all while weighing the need and impact for every word.
billy isn't being 100% honest with us when he claims to have written "nothing" today, because he definitely wrote a great, vivid ass fucking album. I could write a paper on the awesomeness and depth of this album, and how even though most tracks don't really break the 2 minute mark, each has more girth and depth than the average mortal can handle. I'll take the year to really get into every detail that billy wrote, but I know already this shit is amazing.
woods you wylin with this album my dude. I can only pray the record stork delivers the vinyl to my house, and that you roll out to Portland with Elucid soon!
Favorites so far: "Flatlands", "U Boats", "Scales", "Slow Week", "Born Yesterday".