Stanisland Magazine

Blending horrorcore and abstract music, the rapper showcases an eye-opening side of hip-hop

Billy Woods is one of the most respected rappers in the game, fusing horror-core methods, authored as avant-garde.

His rhyme schemes are not for average hip-hop heads, but for those living with a refined palate. His fresh and highly-anticipated album Golliwog is a conceptual body of work on the radar of monocle-wearing rap aficionados. It’s a compositional masterpiece built to expand its width with searching questions.

What Golliwog Sounds Like

As you’d expect, a complex rhyme construct is at play. From the get-go, Jumpscare (featuring Steel Tipped Dove) cuts us a sliver of what’s to come, laying down matter-of-fact bars that speak as an index for the album.

READ MORE: Shabaka Performs Soaring Hallucination With Billy Woods On ‘Timepieces’

Tempos shift as we arrive at STAR87 with Conductor Williams, and deliveries continue social commentaries supported by a bleak soundtrack.

Misery and BLK XMAS collaborates with Kenny Segal, Bruiser Wolf, and Sadhugold, as the prolific rapper continues to line our pockets with some cleft boom-bap meets avant-garde hip-hop.

Other tracks like BLK ZMBY use metaphor to explore the dehumanisation of the Black community. It employs the album’s eloquent thematic nihilistic foundation to enhance a sentiment of atmosphere and abstraction. This is similarly embossed on Lead Paint Test featuring ELUCID & Cavalier, where a percussion-led composition takes a backseat to augment each performance.

The Verdict

There’s so much to unpack from this canvas. It never slows, as heard on the outro Dislocated, which explores ideas of displacement and disorientation.

Golliwog is ultimately a message, and a poignant question, one loaded with substance, loss, and identity. It’s an incredible diaristic work.

How to Stream and Buy Vinyl

You can stream the new album on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. Alternatively, digital copies can be purchased from Bandcamp. The Vinyl, cassette, and CD versions feature variant cover art and can be purchased directly from the rapper’s website or through Rough Trade.

In the UK, physical copies can be bought from HMV.

The Full Tracklist

• Jumpscare (prod. by Steel Tipped Dove)
• STAR87 (prod. by Conductor Williams)
• Misery (prod. by Kenny Segal)
• BLK XMAS (feat. Bruiser Wolf, prod. by Sadhugold)
• Waterproof Mascara (prod. by Preservation)
• Counterclockwise (prod. by The Alchemist)
• Corinthians (feat. Despot, prod. by Willie Green)
• Pitchforks & Halos (prod. by Kenny Segal)
• All These Worlds Are Yours (feat. ELUCID, DJ Haram, Shabaka Hutchings)
• Maquiladoras (feat. al.divino, Saint Abdullah)
• A Doll Fulla Pins (feat. Yolanda Watson, Jeff Markey)
• Golgotha (prod. by Messiah Musik)
• Cold Sweat (prod. by Ant)
• BLK ZMBY (prod. by Steel Tipped Dove)
• Make No Mistake (prod. by Messiah Musik)
• Born Alone (prod. by Kenny Segal)
• Lead Paint Test (feat. ELUCID, Cavalier, Willie Green)
• Dislocated (feat. ELUCID, Human Error Club)