billy woods x Messiah Musik

Backwoodz Studioz 2022

Jazz drone beats, interesting rhyme formation, and purposeful context and delivery make this a fun listen. The album’s off-time signatures also make for unique changes of gears between songs. billy woods isnt just rapping in New York, he’s breathing New York into his music. As the founder of the record label Backwoodz Studioz, he has become a vessel for street-wise storytelling and strong prose. This is the kind of album one studies. The dilapidated and rusted tenement depicted in the album art looks like the fossilized remains of a dream long gone. Baltimore’s Messiah Musik as producer is a perfect compliment to woods’ brutal sensibilities. The first track, Paraquat, talks about being raised on the harmful herbicide found on cannabis. It sets the bleak but honest tone for the whole record. The album is an imaginative dreamscape qualified by many orders of magnitude to move the needle. So much so, that it could even probably do so with no beat at all.

8/10