Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick is one of the best albums of 2023, a virtuoso outing from one of the best rappers working today.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label: Self-released
Release Date: May 5, 2023
Vibe: 😮💨
The best rappers exude personality and precision in equal measure. From Rakim and Biggie Smalls to Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator, they’re tacticians behind the mic as much as they are natural performers. If the emcees in this category are generally considered the cream of the crop, it’s time to permanently add billy woods to that list permanently. In a run that includes Haram (as one half of Armand Hammer), Chruch, and now Maps, the New York-based artist has shown he’s one of the true originals in the rap game.
Bolstered by the sharp, brooding production by Kenny Segal, woods puts on a dizzying display of verbal dexterity. His wordplay and punchlines are off the charts, particularly on a track like “Blue Smoke,” where we find him squarely out of f***s to give. But arguably more impressive is how he uses space and time to his advantage, letting pauses, inflections, and sighs fill in the gaps between his bars. In the opening verse of “FaceTime,” he proclaims: “Ready to die, it's no Biggie/No surprise, no pity/Lived a couple lives, go ahead and slide, hope I take a couple with me/Made a couple dollars it got tricky quickly.” Along with his tone and pacing, he gets across an entire other song’s worth of exposition in 33 words.
The entire record follows suit. Truly mesmerizing stuff.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈
Got thoughts on this album? Did you love it? Sound off in the comments.