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Background

Maps, the 2023 album from rapper billy woods and producer Kenny Segal, acts as a sequel of some sorts. Their 2019 album, Hiding Places, is often regarded in each respective artists best works. billy woods’ bravado, harsh and intricate flow, and deep sociopolitical commentary combined excellently with Segal’s abrasive, rock inspired production in a way that captured many peoples’ attention. It could be argued that Hiding Places is the album that launched each artist into the sphere of “widely known” underground artists.

Kenny Segal got his start in California producing EDM music before getting involved in the underground hiphop scene. He eventually met up with rapper Milo and they worked together on the album “So The Flies Don’t Come”. Which is an amazing album which I strongly recommend, which I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I didn’t know Segal produced before researching for this essay. Anyways, this is all to say, the success of “So The Flies Don’t Come” and his relationship with Milo put Kenny on the New York underground scene. This eventually led to his relationship with billy woods and the making of Hiding Places. Kenny then went on to produce other great albums, like Purple Moonlight Pages with Milo under the alias RAP Ferreira, before coming back together with woods for Maps.

woods’ history is a little bit more… complicated. His rap career started in the early 2000’s rapping with Vordul Mega from the acclaimed group Cannibal Ox. woods would then go on to join the group Super Chron Flight Brothers with rapper Privilege. woods then began a solo string of records with critical hits like History Will Absolve Me, as well as starting the group Armand Hammer with rapper ELUCID. billy woods and Kenny Segal had their first collaboration on the Armand Hammer track “Pergamum” off their album “Rome”. After making “Hiding Places”, woods entered a phase of extremely prolific output, often putting out multiple albums a year either solo or with Armand Hammer, all receiving near-universal acclaim. This has continued into 2023, with the release of “Maps”, and later the Armand Hammer album “We Buy Diabetic Test Strips”. Many say hiphop is a young man’s game, but woods in his late 40’s has a strong contention for the spot of most prolific rapper in the game.

woods’ personal life is much more enigmatic. He wants nothing more than to be off the record, not letting interviewers shoot his face or making them edit it out, being very selective about what he reveals in his songs and in real life, and generally lives a low key lifestyle. What he does reveal is that he grew up in New York, his mother was an English professor, and his father a Communist revolutionary. Both of these are reflected in his music, from his wide vocabulary and incredibly layered literary references, to his often revolutionary take on social issues. woods’ enigmatic nature and complex lyrics make it so that you only catch glimpses of the man through the persona, reminiscent of one of his inspirations, MF DOOM.

Review

Maps is a concept album, telling the story of woods going on his first international tour. It is structured as a Hero’s Journey, with him leaving his home in New York, touring the world, and returning home with a new perspective. This journey starts with the track Kenwood Speakers, opening with harsh drum snaps and woods announcing that he leaves tomorrow but he has time today.Taking place in New York, the track brings up woods’ old beater and rats in the streets. woods remarks

“…got one eye on those guys, The other on a crumbling mansion If it’s gon’ get gentrified, I’m not trying to leave it empty-handed.”,

referencing the album cover of his and Segal’s prior collaboration, wondering if his music will change or be “gentrified” by his newfound monetary success.

The next track is Soft Landing. It opens off with the line

“killing is one thing but eggs make omelettes statistics is how he looks at war casualties”

referencing Stalin saying “A death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic”. Continuing on this revolutionary line of thinking, woods discusses freeing political revolutionaries and turning over the regime. The track then goes on to woods flying high above the clouds, poetically commenting on the beauty outside his window:

“For a brief, sweet, moment it was nothing in the thought bubble From up here the lakes is puddles The land unfold brown and green, it’s a quiet puzzle”

woods then lands with a confident text to his ex, and the overhead speaker announces that they are in Amsterdam.

Soundcheck sees woods starting his actual tour. He is in full blown bravado, declaring he will not be at soundcheck. Instead, he attends a greasy Szechuan spoon, starting a string of intricate descriptions of food laced throughout the album. woods goes on to say,

“Is it rap beef or is it on sight? Talking out they teeth, don’t even know what I look like” and “Nikon flash, my face is the mask Develop the photograph but somеthing just wasn’t quite,”

cleverly comparing his elusive persona with the underground legend MF DOOM, with a reference to the track “Beef Rap” and comparing his aversion to photos to a mask like DOOM’s. woods finishes his verse describing being walked into the show, seeing homeless being shoved out of the way in the streets nearby. He talks of his anxiety being in crowds of people like that, despite not showing it in his set. Quelle Chris is featured with a verse describing his effortless skill when on the stage, talking about how there isn’t even a need to compare to him.

Rapper Weed, as the title would suggest, is filled with allegories related to weed. In verse 1, woods talks about weed in so much eccentric packaging that he needed tools to get to it, only to find out its trash. This could be compared to the struggles of getting to the level of notoriety of touring, only to find out it’s not as glamorous as it was anticipated to be. In his second verse, woods has an awkward situation buying weed and foresees a terrible fate on the dealer, with biblical style bursting into boils, referencing Fairfax Virginia, his current destination. woods’ chorus talks about him flying off with his weed and ruminating,

“If the track slaps, in the back, you can almost hear the black cackling When it’s my time, no need to pass the hat Just throw me in when the fire good and crackling”

with woods laughing over the chorus as the track closes out.

*Blue Smoke* features jazzy, fast paced production from Segal with an anxious drum beat and a bass line to match the pace woods comes in with a hurried flow, again commenting on the fear of becoming changed by success saying “symbols eclipse the things they symbolize.. but read the contract before you sign.” woods later jokes about his elusive identity saying

“So much tape hiss, FBI agents narrowed they eyes Frustrated, asking to be reassigned ‘Been on this n-word for months, I think it’s all just rhymes.'”

woods then finishes the song with another excellent food bar,

“The pork belly was brined, braised, then deep fried Fresh mint, Thai basil, pickled watermelon rind Julienned scallions and other alliums, gave the peppermill one grind Noncommittal when she said she’d cook next time”

And man I just have to say. I’m a professional cook and I’d bet woods could out-cook me any day if that’s what he’s laying down.

Bad Dreams Are Only Dreams tells of a jet-lagged plane ride. woods is feeling the weight of his journey at this point and he has had enough time to be exposed to the darker sides of it. woods daydreams of the plane he’s riding on crashing, and using that image as a metaphor for his current feeling. He finishes the verse with the hard closer, “King’s ransom, it ain’t no ride that’s free. Half-sleep with the halo, dead on my feet.”

The album then goes to a set of tracks with features, starting with Babylon By Bus. The duo Shrapknel (frequent collaborator Curly Castro as well as PremRock) come in with hard hitting bass voices and a more upbeat tempo, which is a welcome change to the sonic pacing of the album. The beat switches from a drum dominant beat to a heavy chorus sample as woods comes in for his second verse with dominance, laying one of my personal favorite verses on the entire album, really showing off his capability to fit multiple dense metaphors in few words.

In Year Zero, woods comments on the degradation of society through capitalism with people wasting their lives in front of computers for corporations, leading to one of the best bars on the album,

“Sooner or later it’s gon’ be two unrelated active shooters Same place, same time Great minds, Tesla and Edison”

with the verse generally carrying an air of reform. Danny Brown then comes in with a fun comedic guest verse, which rides perfectly on Segal’s crashing cymbals.

Hangman is my personal favorite track on the album. woods comes in with a weighty flow over Segal’s ethereal, disjointed beat. woods starts another theme of the album with, “I don’t sleep, I hover outside myself watching my body survive”, discussing the dissociative feeling of traveling day in and day out. woods makes great use of his technique where he draws out a bar a measure or two longer than you expect to add weight and significance to it, and he has perfect vocal control to add weight to his words. In verse 2, woods makes a fun Tarantino reference in the rhyme dense bar,

“Dead ass gas got him gasping at the fumes Doja pak with the tax, it’s giving shrooms Death proof, the deathtrap goes vroom, vroom”

Baby Steps features ELUCID and their synergy is as strong as ever. It starts with a somewhat dreamy woods talking about a 10 hour Chicago layover. woods then confidently raps over the surreal beat about a $300 uber ride he had to take and just hop into a show. He raps,

“Just picture me sittin’ with the pen in a cloud of smoke Front row at your live set just to determine if it’s a hoax”

cleverly indicating that his face is hidden and once again referencing MF DOOM, who was infamous for setting up imposters at his shows. woods finishes his verse with a nice bar about oxtail and nibbling areolas. ELUCID comes in with his poetic style and sets the scene of him as dark cultist doing a ritual.

The Layover is another very high point on the album in my eyes. It takes place in Chicago, as referenced in the intro of the previous track. The first verse is laden with racial commentary, highlighted prominently by,

“Black Death, rubbernecking pale faces Handkerchiefs soaked in perfume”

comparing the disgust and ambivalence white upper class have towards black people dying with the perfume soaked rags thought to protect people from the black plague. woods’ verse is one of the album’s catchiest with woods saying he has “one foot in your grave.” Verse 2 starts off with a reference to Parts Unknown by Anthony Bourdain, which he then follows up with another reference later in the verse. He also may be referencing his album Known Unknowns, as he also makes subtle references to his albums History Will Absolve Me and Hiding Places. In this way, woods even more closely compares himself with Anthony Bourdain, who is known for living a life characterized by experiencing a wide variety of all life has to offer, yet was cut off too soon.

Facetime features a smoother and jazzier production with a nice sax line from Segal, with woods rapping with a more rhythmic flow. It starts off with a Biggie reference and goes into a verse telling of struggles with maintaining a relationship while touring, telling of doing couples therapy over zoom, including a reference to Death Row playing off the Biggie reference. Towards the end of the verse woods talks about a Mezcal negroni that always gets me thirsty. Samuel T. Herring sweetly sings the chorus about facetime bringing two together despite touring around. The second verse goes into woods at hotel room with a rave outside. He goes down to the bar and is surrounded by wealthy people, yet can only think of his girl. woods finishes his verse saying “I don’t sleep, I tread water til I sink”, concluding that lyrical theme running through the album. I also think it’s worth mentioning We Buy Diabetic Test Strips here, as phones are a major theme of that album. Not saying it’s directly tied together but just interesting to see that theme seems to be very present on woods’ mind lately.

Agriculture is a track of woods daydreaming about a rural life while driving through farmland. He ruminates on the relation between farmland and slavery and some of the hardships of country living. He then goes into the brighter, peaceful side and says “I say I’m at peace but it’s still that same dread.” This could be a metaphor for woods saying his new successful life has solved his problems, but he still has to deal with his issues.

Houdini as a track has very dissociated vibes. woods talks about having a day off, and it sounds like it hasn’t really happened in a while. He talks about getting high on OG and grilling up CostCo meat. The chorus is short and simple, “I was high all day, I escaped.” Verse two has woods describing the weed he’s smoking with a taste of “Jamaican oranges that look like limes.” woods says “These cats workin with mirrors, I disappear.” accentuating how off the grid and dissociated woods is, also acting as a metaphor to say he’s a real one.

Waiting Around starts with a feature from New York legend Aesop Rock. He’s here with his classic verbose diction and dizzying rhyme schemes. woods’ verse finds him back in Amsterdam. He is drained and tired saying he has “time to kill, but time must’ve knew and holed up somewhere it didn’t have to move.” He says he has a safe full of money and so much weed he’s basically wasting it, yet it still carries the depressed, dissociated tone brought on by touring.

NYC Tapwater sees woods come back to New York, as the title suggests, and it immediately carries a more upbeat energy. Despite this, he is still drained from his journey, saying, “I always miss this place til I’m back.” He greets the stray cats he likes and notices a new panhandler as he walks into a bar late at night. In verse 2, he says how he keeps a low profile after returning from a tour and smokes weed in peace with his stray cat friend. He then thinks about the gentrification that has taken place in his neighborhood, made even more obvious to him after being away for so long.

As The Crow Flies starts with ELUCID saying

“Everybody cooking, I’m just cleaning up my kitchen Emptying the fridge, bleaching counters, sweeping corners”

tying together the food theme running throughout the album. He then goes into a complex verse that is simultaneously braggadocios and self-effacing. woods caps the album off with a short and sweet verse, reflecting on his child growing older and thinking of death.

Conclusion

Maps is a truly phenomonal album coming from, in my opinion, the best voice in hiphop today. It is his most accessible album, but he doesn’t let that detract from the lyrical depth. Instead, he uses it as a platform to serve the most vivid descriptions and personal emotion from a woods album to date. woods and Kenny Segal are now 2 for 2, and I’m excited for anything they collaborate on in the future.

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Discussion Questions

How does Maps compare to Hiding Places?

What is your favorite beat on the record?

What producers would you like to collaborate with woods on an album in the future?