New York rapper Billy Woods, who built a reputation across the 2010s as one of the most brilliant lyricists in the rap game and prolific writers, released his ninth studio album (but actually, including collaborations, closer to his 20th). Golliwog is perhaps his most tortured album yet and his most simultaneously personal and conceptual, though thematically adjacent to 2022’s Aethiopes. Unlike Aethiopes, Golliwog is not Woods’ best work. It is a fractured work that rehashes several lyrical and sonic themes though is nonetheless among his most cinematic.
Always present is the political backdrop of postcolonial state transformation in Southern Africa juxtaposed with his personal experience, isolation, self-deprecation and emotional disconnection. Woods and the production team opt for a scattershot approach, aiming for a ‘more than the sum of its parts’ outcome. Despite the varied production courtesy of a long list of collaborators, the album is wrapped in a consistently claustrophobic atmosphere, which forms the backdrop for Woods’ catastrophic rapping.
Steel Tipped Dove crafts the horror pastiche Jumpscare with ticking music box and Woods’ dejected recital, and the hysterical noir-jazz boom bap of BLK ZMBY. Griselda-adjacent Conductor Williams constructs the hive of electronic noise on Star 87, which introduces Woods’ personal-political psychodrama. Woods delivers more consummate imagery over the trippy atmosphere of Counterclockwise, courtesy of The Alchemist. Long-time collaborator Kenny Segal, revives their classic chemistry on the two catchiest tracks, Misery with dark, dissonant sax and Woods’ vivid portrait of lust, and the drowsy Born Alone, an homage to MF Doom as well as Pitchforks & Halos, with eerie, video-game synths.
The best tracks however are where the production atmosphere significantly amplifies Woods’ dramas in an entirely new way. Firstly, El-P’s Corinthians with tense and cerebral movie-score synthesisers (also featuring a top guest verse from reclusive rapper, Despot). Secondly, Waterproof Mascara, where Preservation sculpts an ominous backdrop of ghostly whispers for Woods’ paranoia. Thirdly, A Dolla Fulla Pins, with a tragic noir-jazz atmosphere concocted by Messiah Musik where Woods delivers a depressed meditation.
The most musically ambitious track is perhaps the barren post-industrial wasteland of All These Worlds Are Yours (Shabaka Hutchings, DJ Haram), with a succinct verse from Woods and a haunting litany from E L U C I D. Second to that is Maquiladoras (Saint Abdulah and Eomac), which is essentially acapella rapping above a soundscape of drowned-out chatter.
The album ends with two relatively conventional noir-boom bap inventions, Lead Paint Test, featuring E L U C I D and Cavalier (Willie Green) and the piano requiem Dislocated (HUMAN ERROR CLUB), which summarize the central themes of memory, trauma and disconnection.
Golliwog indicates foremost that Woods has graduated into a refined storyteller, even if it doesn’t contain his most impactful rapping or his best standalone songs. His rapping has grown noticeably low-key in recent releases. Nonetheless, his lyrics remain among the most literate in the game. Besides the political and psychological drama, Woods’ impeccable, granular descriptions of everyday scenes with almost Cormac McCarthy-like precision is always a spectacle.
Released: May 9, 2025
Label: Backwoodz Studios
Losing My Edge Rating: 7/10
Best Tracks: Corinthians, Waterproof Mascara, A Dolla Fulla of Pins, Misery