Billy Woods has one of the highest batting averages in the game. Between his solo records like Hiding Places and Maps, and his collaborative albums with Elucid as Armand Hammer, the man has multiple stone-cold classics under his belt. And, while no one would ever claim that Woodsโ albums were light-hearted fare (these are not party records), Golliwog represents his darkest to date.
This is not your typical horrorcore record. Others, like Geto Boys, Gravediggaz, and Insane Clown Posse, reach for slasher aesthetics and shock tactics. But what Billy Woods has crafted is more A24 than Blumhouse.
Sure, the first track is called โJumpscare,โ and it opens with the sound of a film reel spinning up, followed by a creepy music box and the line: โRagdoll playing dead. Rabid dog in the yard, car wonโt start, itโs bees in your head.โ Itโs setting you up for the typical horror flick gimmickry. But by the end, itโs psychological torture. A cacophony of voices forms a bed for unidentifiable screeching noises, and Woods drops what feels like a mission statement:
โThe English language is violence, I hotwired it. I got a hold of the masterโs tools and got dialed in.โ
Throughout the record, Woods turns to his producers to craft not cheap scares, but tension, to make the listener feel uneasy. โWaterproof Mascaraโ turns a womanโs sobs into a rhythmic motif. On โPitchforks & Halosโ Kenny Segal conjures the aural equivalent of a POV shot of a serial killer. And โAll These Worlds are Yoursโ produced by DJ Haram has more in common with the early industrial of Throbbing Gristle than it does even some of the other tracks on the record, like โGolgothaโ which pairs boombap drums with New Orleans funeral horns.
That dense, at times scattered production is paired with lines that juxtapose the real-world horrors of oppression and colonialism, with scenes that feel taken straight from Bring Her Back: โTrapped a housefly in an upside-down pint glass and waited for it to die.โ And later, Woods seamlessly transitions from boasting to warning people about turning their backs on the genocide in Gaza on โCorinthiansโ:
If you never came back from the dead you canโt tell me shit
Twelve billion USD hovering over the Gaza Strip
You donโt wanna know what it cost to live
What it cost to hide behind eyelids
When your back turnt, secret cannibals lick they lips
The record features some of Woodsโ deftest lyricism, balancing confrontation with philosophy, horror with emotion. Billy Woodsโ Golliwog is available on Bandcamp and on most major streaming services, including Apple Music, Qobuz, Deezer, YouTube Music, and Spotify.
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