Billy Woods: Golliwog (2LP) [BACKWOODZ]

Why you'll love it

This Backwoodz Studioz 2LP set spreads all eighteen tracks across four sides. Golliwog drew critical acclaim, with 9/10 from both Clash and The Line of Best Fit and five stars from The Skinny.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Stereo mix

About the album

Horror films tend to save the scariest thing for the end. Billy Woods puts his on the cover: a handmade golliwog doll, the old racial caricature the album is named after, staring straight at you. Golliwog is his ninth solo album and his first since Aethiopes, a record that borrows the language of horror to talk about history, family and the everyday.

The production list is a who's who of the underground: The Alchemist, El-P, Kenny Segal, Conductor Williams, DJ Haram, Saint Abdullah, Sadhugold, Preservation and Shabaka Hutchings, among others. "Misery" and "Blk Zmby" came out first, Elucid, his partner in Armand Hammer, turns up, and Bruiser Wolf, Despot, Cavalier and al.divino add their own voices. Saxophonist Mette Rasmussen drifts through a couple of tracks, singer Yoland Watson adds another colour, and Willie Green mixed most of it and mastered the lot, with Steel Tipped Dove engineering.

The Guardian heard moments of beauty amid the dark, and Slant called it unapologetic art for challenging times. Fair warning that it isn't background music for a dinner party; it's the record everyone ends up talking about after the dinner party.

Also at Kops: more Billy Woods on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Backwoodz Studioz (cat# BWZ804lp-C1), the 2025 album.