A Lot on My Crate

Billy Woods was a name I’ve known in the underground hip hop scene through many praise on the web. But I’ve never got around to listening to him with much regret yet at an auspicious time when he did an unforgettable collaboration with Moor Mother on Brass in 2020. The work on that album was what Billy does best. Using dense yet cold lyrics to describe the wicked ways of our unjust world. One day, I would love to do a deep dive of Brass, since I’ll confidentially say it’s one of my favorite hip hop albums ever. And this made me have more desire to follow his work more. I’m aware of his duo project with fellow rapper Elucid that I’ve never got the chance to listen. However Billy’s teamup with Kenny Segal on Maps was astounding yet accessible. Then comes this album. The best way to describe this album it is probably my favorite darkest album yet. It is how others have described, haunting and harrowing with Billy’s bars being so dense and many times fly over my head on how clever he is or if the references are way above my pay grade. He drops verses with mentions of Deng Xiaoping, Coach Thibs, Annie from Misery, the RICO Act, Corinthians, and even a Sylvia Plath name drop that is absolutely bonkers. Woods is very well aware of what’s going on in our present and our past, which I can say more than me. However, as I might fail to grasp the references, I try to understand more as these sinister beats come with these harrowing flows. I know Woods is trying to relay to us with the telescope in front. And all we have to do is look through the lens even if we might be uncomfortable with what it is. The sound of this album is already a trance and a fever dream, yet is what draws me into this album. It’s a tough listen and may not be accessible to some. But if you sit down and are willing to put the effort. This is definitely an experience you won’t forget.

“Jumpscare” sounding like an American Horror Story episode, Woods references the title of the album right off the bat and heads into the horrors of colonialism. I’m always fascinated with a lot of these words and names I haven’t been aware of and wonder, which books Woods has hit. Quivering strings and bass on “STAR87” and Woods is still referencing children’s books, but the content straight ahead are not for the faint of heart and innocent young souls. Standout moments is Woods talking about his past and having survivor’s guilt. And “Misery” being a strong track with Woods returning to collab with Kenny Segal. It sounds like a Madlib joint (which was appropriate since they make an MF DOOM homage) with Woods speaking ill and praise of an adulterer woman. There’s a lot of erotic imagery at play and this woman he’s head over heels with has caused him pain. How does he cope? I absolutely love this campy DJ on “BLK XMAS” that feature Bruiser Wolf provides, but the matter at hand is the opposite of fun. We touch on the subject of poverty while the people on top want them to suffer. It gets to you when they mention spoiled food, broken toys, and neighbors being evicted in their homes. It’s tragic, yet maddening to the point that the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We get to the stunning “Waterproof Mascara” as I had a visceral reaction with this grainy sample of this woman crying. It’s such a haunting, disturbing sound. This crying woman is most likely Billy’s mother wanting an escape from their hometown in Zimbabwe. It’s a survival story with not that bright of an outcome as he dropped that Sylvia Plath bar to stay strong and not succumb to the absolute stress. One of my other favorites was “Corinthians” sounds like a John Carpenter dream that never ends. After a Mandarin excerpt, there is great wordplay used against the violence in Gaza, Saudi Arabia, and Elon Musk. I remember the grim video referenced by Woods in “All These Worlds Are Yours” about the Russian soldier being killed by grenades from a drone in the Ukraine Invasion. The opening of that song mentioning the drones being such a powerful weapons, but being as far away from humanity as possible. The verses feeling like chants or spells being cast, which makes it so hypnotic and lets us go into a desensitized trance. “Maquiladoras” starts with killer verses of gang imagery with Al.Divino. Then it goes into an intimate piano about people needing to cope about losing their culture and identity according to the status quo. Diabolical on how that ideal is. Woods likening it to amputation in a way that is poignant to the point that it gave me goosebumps. It’s a lounge saxophone jazz song on “A Doll Fulla Pins” that Woods raps about being alone in this cold world. The aesthetic the song makes is like a noir film and then it goes into a down spiral with this man referencing the titular character that demands him to look after himself and his interests only. He talks about nightmares on blights of his community, a botched basketball draft, and gentrification. Many subjects that just fly over my head. “BLK ZMBY” has one of the coolest, badass beats in the LP with Billy Woods rapping about zombie states, a subject so grim by African refugees leaving governments by sea. Who’s to say they made it out alive? It was really a nice jab to have the dictator of Uganda’s speech being layered by flies. Another favorite of mine is “Born Alone” where this somber lone piano plays throughout. We get another MF DOOM tribute and the connection with death and ones shoes. And then we get “Lead Paint Test”, which sonically might be my favorite out of the whole album. There’s these somber piano chords with a trumpet accompaniment. The other half of Armand Hammer’s ELUCID feature being an absolute machine on the first verses. And Cavalier being able to match their energy is a feat as well. And with Billy’s verses coming in, it is revealed that these artists had a pretty rough childhood. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, as they not only peel the wallpaper to show the cracks of their childhood, but their parents cracking under pressure to survive. We end with a strong closer being “Dislocated”, where we have ELUCID again showing up as a trippy disembodied voice ringing in your head. Woods closes the curtain says he won’t be located. I’d say that he wishes it to be true, since he blurs his face out in promotional shoots. I don’t blame him, since it’s a weird parasocial world out there.

The album is a long listen and even with the few tracks not resonating with me, they were still a decent listen. The album being almost an hour is in danger of being bloated, but thankfully was not the case with its haunting atmosphere. The only ones I couldn’t get into were not because of Wood’s lyrics, but the production being a little too scant and barebones for me.

To say this album is spooky is very reductive. It’s not an album that you can market in a Spirit Halloween. Its production sets the atmosphere and stage, but the lyrics were the real horror of this project. The album is so dense lyrically, that I wanted to look up as much as I can of the content he preaches, but even then I know a lot of it would go through the cracks of my brain. There is so much wrongdoing in the world that I thought I am aware, but there’s always something else. It’s so disturbing. It’s not supposed to be a feel good album, but the tools are there to make you listen. The title of this album is something I wanted to talk about, is actually a slur on a racist caricature doll marketed to children in the late 19th century. Another injustice added to the history books that Woods highlights, as he conveys bars on children’s tales occasionally in this record. Children’s tales are supposed to teach the young on how to be morally centered, to be prepared for life, but somehow the adults still have so much to learn.

FAVORITE TRACKS: STAR87, MISERY, BLK XMAS, WATERPROOF MASCARA, CORINTHIANS, ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, MAQUILADORAS, A DOLL FULLA PINS, COLD SWEAT, BLK ZMBY, BORN ALONE, LEAD PAINT TEST, DISLOCATED

LEAST FAVORITE: COUNTERCLOCKWISE

You can purchase this album on Bandcamp and his discography is also available for streaming.

https://billywoods.bandcamp.com/album/golliwog