billy woods

(USA)

ADAO

2 OUT

23h20

After appearing at last year’s OUT.FEST as one half of Armand Hammer, billy woods returns to Barreiro - this time under his own name, carrying over two decades of a singular, uncompromising voice and a new future classic in an already formidable discography, with the recent release of the acclaimed “GOLLIWOG”. A haunting and haunted album, “GOLLIWOG” confronts the very real horrors of racism, imperialism, and the systemic and systematic violence that perpetuates and consumes itself. It is yet another visionary and timely manifesto from this veteran of the New York rap scene, born of the unrelenting urgency of a sharp, lived lyricism he has been honing and rewriting since his 2003 debut “Camouflage”. With production by the likes of EL-P, The Alchemist, and DJ Haram, “GOLLIWOG” carries the weight of the present moment and gestures toward the uncertainty of possible futures, through heavy beats, lethargic curtains of smoke, jazz-laced vibrations, and terrifying samples. Music about survival, and music as survival.

Photo: Natalia Vacheishvili