billy woods - Golliwog (2LP)

Facts GOLLIWOG is billy woods’ first album in two years, preceded by 2023’s Maps, his second collaboration with producer Kenny Segal. That nimble travelogue has little in common with woods’ newest work, despite the fact that Segal shows up a couple of times in the credits.

GOLLIWOG is a haunting collection that weaves horror, humor, surrealism, and Afropessimism into a cinematic tapestry, aided and abetted by a murderer’s row of producers. African zombies, time-traveling trap cars, malevolent ragdolls, and a dying Frantz Fanon are just a few of the revelers in woods’ danse macabre.

The album features production from The Alchemist, Kenny Segal, EL-P, Conductor Williams, Preservation, Messiah Musik, Sadhugold, Ant (Atmosphere), Shabaka Hutchings, Steel Tipped Dove, DJ Haram, Willie Green, Jeff Markey, Saint Abdullah, and LA-based experimental jazz trio Human Error Club. Meanwhile, woods is joined on the mic by Backwoodz labelmates E L U C I D and Cavalier, along with rappers Bruiser Wolf, Despot, Al.Divino, and singer-songwriter Yolanda Watson.

GOLLIWOG is another triumph in the woods oeuvre, as layered and compelling as anything he has ever done—a black carnival pitched in a muddy field overnight, empty rides whirring and clattering in the dark.