RSSBilly Woods and Kenny Segal [extended]
- Ajai [Cohn Corporation, 2020] A-
- Aethiopes [Backwoodz Studioz, 2022] **
- Church [Backwoodz Studioz, 2022] B+
- Maps [Backwoodz Studioz, 2023] A-
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Serengeti & Kenny Segal: Ajai [Cohn Corporation, 2020]
Riding well-textured beats from L.A. alt-rap wizard Segal, Geti's most musical album in quite a few prolific years is also his most accessible in quite a few daunting ones. Or maybe not so accessible--I can't really tell because commodity fetishism as aesthetic pursuit as neurotic obsession has been over my head since Run-D.M.C. began shouting about their Adidas. The first fashion victim here is the title character, an Indian sneaker collector who cooks with quinoa, appreciates tarragon, and siphons his wife's medical-research earnings into--to cite just three lines--Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Supreme, Prada, Abloh, and Diadora, and soon there'll be more. Midway through he's replaced in the subject position by telephone repairman turned over-the-hill rapper Kenny Dennis, who at the start is eating tuna straight out the can but betters himself before the album is over. I think. A-
Billy Woods: Aethiopes [Backwoodz Studioz, 2022]
Makes sense that the only rapper sired by a Marxist scholar should concoct the best-informed stock market rap ever, and also that it's not terribly hooky ("Versailles," "NYNEX") **
Billy Woods: Church [Backwoodz Studioz, 2022]
You gotta admire this guy. His groaned raps crackpot yet deeply informed, his electrosymph beats textural by default while falling short of arresting or hypnotic, he steeps his rhymes in the lore of the church in the jungle his grandfather built and via his Marxist dad takes armed revolt more seriously than Immortal Technique and Dead Prez combined. "The shit I wrote can't do it on a phone," he brags amid references to "Ceaucescu's chess moves," "an Amharic Bible she found on 113th," a stabbing at Shakespeare in the Park, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. "Win or lose the Maoists is still glum," he reports. Which may be because "When the revolution was over they gave 'em half of what they promised." B+
Maps [Backwoodz Studioz, 2023]
With crucial help from Serengeti and R.A.P. Ferreira pal Kenny Segal, who adds crucial musical ballast to rhymes that cruise to a soft landing on a finale that finds reason for militance in a playground, Woods finally delivers music worthy of a mind-body continuum whose wholeness there was never reason to doubt. Danny Brown fucks shit up and Aesop Rock nails shit down, rappers are stricken with gout and there's a suicide at the gentrifier's next door, the acknowledged healing qualities of zithromyecin and New York City tapwater fail to compensate for peace cut with dread, your taxes underwriting police brutality settlements, and other "things you can't undo." With "every victory pyrrhic," you do make it a principle to skip soundcheck. But definitely not to skip the playground, or to scare your kid off the jungle gym you know can be dangerous and he doesn't yet. A-