billy woods between POWERFUL and powerless. "Hiding Places" with Kenny Segal review 

Wow hopefully the interview with Billy Woods and Kenny Segal works out! That’s going to be epic! Also glad to hear you like Dead End Hip Hop, I feel like they don’t get the attention they deserve. You guys should collaborate!

Stepped on a rake.

"Stood pooled in porchlight. Cut my shadow off with a dull knife. Whispered in its ear and set it off into the night." - Houthi

The house on the cover is a mansion designed by Albert Kahn in Detroit. Here's a quote: "This house, one of Albert Kahn's first commissions, was built in 1893 for the wealthy banker William Livingstone. In the 1990s, it was moved and replanted a few yards away on a vacant lot. Eventually, its facade collapsed in 2007 and the house was demolished a few months later."

I cannot tell you how many times that "fucking with the joystick pretending I was really playing" line has either cropped up tears or sent shivers down my spine. Genius line that calls back to childhood memories while being powerless to the reality of things, under this illusion of being in control. I also have very many memories as a poor kid in restaurant arcade corners pretending to play something like Hydro Thunder or Cruis'n Exotica. Billy Woods music has really changed how I consume music, and view it in general. So glad to have discovered someone willing to dive into the depths of his work.

YOU DID IT!! This album is amazing, im so glad you're going back for once, this is definitely a guy that deserves the whole retrospective

Thank you so much for putting so much care and thought into discussing my favorite hip hop album. Eternal big ups to Professor Skye, The Most High!

some additional detail on his biography: he explained how his father’s role in the zimbabwean revolutionary government was a more administrative one, such as organizing fundraising, rather than being one of the people actively overthrowing the british government. in relation to Mugabe, woods also said that he attended his father’s funeral. i heard this from a 2012 interview you can find on youtube where he was maybe less worried about sharing personal details because less people were hearing it.

1:52 😯🥰 Awwww, THANK YOU, Professor... you did make me _very_ happy, indeed! Great job, as always - and very thoughtful of you to mention me 😁. I appreciate how much time & energy you put into each video, considering how busy you are (which is why I only recommend something I think you'll really like). Really, really hoping that woods/Segal interview happens!! 🙏 Can only imagine some of the great topics you guys could delve into. And, yes, people do overlook how funny woods is...

that line from "a day in a week in a year" that pretending i was really playing is so layered, it also eludes to spending half of one's life working in a system (machine) making money for someone else while pretending to believe that one is really doing it for themselves. also this following line gives another perspective to the whole narrative of the song: "If I lose it was rigged I'm the man if I win Before settlin' on a narrative, I took 'em all for a spin." dope review as always, wish it was longer though. love and peace.

Glad you've actually re-recorded this. Your videos help me appreciate a genre I love more. Thankyou!

we need that interview

Yo you need to do old KA if your going back, you will not regret it

I imagine the character Woods discusses in the first track of maps is Prof Skye

Awesome hearing you talk about this Woods album also Niggerati was a term used to describe the authors of the Harlem Renaissance

you should review bar italia’s new album tracey denim. they’re an indie, post-punk band from london connected to dean blunt

Glad you got around to checking this out and reviewing it!

I used to watch the raindrops on the window when I was a kid. I haven’t thought about that in years and the way you described it just flooded me with memories

Would love a review on Orpheus vs. the Sirens by Hermit and the Recluse. The Punishment of Sisyphus is one of my favourite hip hop songs ever written

Nothing else like Professor Skye reviews out there 👏 we appreciate you!

Yesss this is one of my favs of his! Maps too, one of my favs this year. Surprised you haven't checked out Kara Jackson! Her album this year is some really amazingly well written singer songwriter folk (she was the 2019 youth poet laureate too)

Thank you professor. This is the album that got me into Woods. I imagine the forehead injury was new baby induced. Not her per se, but like, trying to pick up a Skye Paw Patrol figure off the ground for baby girl and banging your head on a shelf.

Thank you for going back to this album, definitely worth a listen and a review from you. Do Brass by billy woods and Moor Mother next, as you one of the few people who could do a review of it justice.

Thank you for covering this. Woods whole catalog is worth lengthy discussions. Would really like to see you cover his other projects as well. Hope the interview happens. I typically don't like to hear too much from artists expounding on the meaning behind their work but I'd love to hear what he has to say about the pyrrhic line. Would also be great to hear more about his and Kenny's creative process as well. I'm curious how hands on woods is with producing the music especially because he works with so many different producers.

much love

Referring to what you said at the beginning of the review, Professor, talking about Woods’ inadequacy feeling being bicultural, in Italy we say “né carne né pesce”, translated “not meat neither fish”. Just wanted to add this way of saying to make this review the most multicultural possible😂 thank you for reviewing this project, looking forward for the interview!!!

Glad to see you shout out Dead End Hip Hop they were the first Hip Hop youtubers I watched. Your review of hiding places is better than mine glad you dived into it!

This is definitely worth a review and listen.

So happy to see this

glad you did this, one of my all time favourites. Was obsessed with the cover for a while so I got a truckload of paintings and sketches of that building. The main thing of the album for me as always been secrets, what people were thinkin when they pause and ammend their thoughts, the hiding places we retreat into to survive, the horrific realities that are hushed for our daily bread. Class dynamics and revolutionary politics too of course, it's just the secrets that capture me the most. The wildest part is the absolutely head beating dark sarcasm we sing in these gallows, how am I laughing at this? And why am I so glad/willing to? have a good one skye, hope we see some more select blasts from the past. this one was absolutely overdue

WOW What an album to go back to!! Best billy woods project I believe and thats saying a lot.

I haven't listened to anything by Billie Woods yet, but I'm so glad you've arrogated the right to interview him. I will watch with excitment what comes out from your collaboration

Great review as always, any further dispensation to retrospectively review woods work will be greatly accepted! "It's not the heat its the dust" - believe this is a reference to the main complaint made by soldiers during the Afghanistan invasion, also ties into themes of war and dictatorship

So glad you mentioned the final verse on A Day in A Week in A Year. I genuinely feel it’s one of the greatest verses ever written. You either got it or you don’t, so simple yet so impactful. AVAA

i think you liked billy woods soo much that you went back. i remember when you was reviewing ka that you don't go back, forward is were you're always going.

i’m literally flying to the states just so i can take your french class in whatever school wow

Great, great album. Nice, thoughtful, academic review.

“Kenny segal’s drums are not quantized and presently that’s what gives me purpose” - Rory

thank you

"Just say he's the best, let's not argue"

YES one of my favorite experimental hip hop albums of last decade. The sound is SO unique

Thanks Professor for reviewing this album. My favourite billy woods album You might not see this, but out of curiosity have you listened to any Mach-Homny albums that are not on streaming services? Such as The GAT, Luh Hertz, Dump Gawd: Hommy Edition etc.? I know it’s unlikely we will get your takes on these albums but I know you love Mach and these albums deserve a listen for any Mach fan Love your work. Thanks man!

I'm so happy you know how you got the mark You leaned hard into an improperly nailed nail?

"I'm only rhyming where the horn are at" is a reference to "I'm only rhyming where the drums is at" by Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM) on the track "A Dead Mouse"

😮😮😮 he listened to an album that wasn't recorded yesterday!!! I salute you for that

I think you might be interested, with regards to the Donald Glover line, in Wood's 2004 release, "the Chalice" the track "Capture the Flag" includes the line, "This is America/Everybody can't eat"

Hi Skye, show is great, great review. HOWEVER. You did not talk about the second verse of Spongebob enough, in my opinion. The importance of the grave sickness/imminent death of that family member pertinent to his call in Africa (his mother?) is another aspect to what he's "hiding" from. "i can't go there with nothing but my shirt" etc. The death of family is a very recurring theme in his work, he talks about the death of multiple family members on bigfakelaugh as well. Incredible second verse on spongebob but you didn't get past the hobby lobby line 😩

skye stole my old navy tee🤬

You saw SLAPSHOT?! That's what's up!

I was hoping this video would be made.

Opened cupboard

Next more old Mach albums

Prof, im from Syracuse and was actually at Destiny at the same time as you haha much love, thank you for all you do

Man in a hole comes up again on terror management album

More Retro Reviews!

Skye it's a retro review but you really need to check out Origami Harvest by Ambrose Akinmusire, its poetry and philosophy will be right up your alley. It has different instruments representing different classes and races, and great commentary on patriotism and culture.

LETS GOOOOOOOOO

Miss you too

You can totally dance to SpongeBob, FTR

Other Lee "Scratch" Perry to check out: Police and Thieves - Junior Murvin, Heart of the Congos - The Congos, War ina Babylon - Max Romeo, Super Ape - The Upsetters and Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread by Lee Perry.

Looks like it’s time to dip into the whole woods catalogue. As well as some other Backwoodz artists. Make sure you review at least the Backwoodz releases coming this year. Cavalier, Fatboi Sharif, Fielded has an album coming that is nothing like she or Backwoodz has ever done, Blockhead and finally Armand Hammer.

more retro reviews pls

WOo

when I click on these videos i tell myself i will only stay for about 10 minutes, but the next thing I know im 1:31:33 deep

RETRO REVIEWEWW whatttt

i dont know if i've ever seen you go back to an old album

36:50 Here is an interesting fact. I grew up in Soviet and Post Soviet environment. We had just a few (3) TV channels and we had almost no access to the fruits of western culture (just a few translated movies and couple of Beatles albums). So everyone in our giant cultural space watched the same movies (many times) and listened to same music (over and over again). So our daily life was soaked with catch phrases and references, wich every singe one could understand. When "Iron Curtain" fell, we suddenly experienced a HUGE WAVE of new (sometimes 30 years old, but we never seen it before) art from West. It made me realize: you can be familiar with a movie or musical album, that no one (in the radius of hundred miles) ever heard about.

If you gon do this for woods you gotta do it for armand hammer at one point

One the greatest albums ever

Review the new Paul Simon, it's not getting a lot of attention and even of the attention it is getting it hasn't been uniformly positive, but i think he might be hinting at impending mortality to us in the same way Bowie and Leonard Cohen did on their final releases, and it appeals a lot to me in particular as someone who's favorite moments in the S&G discography were the more melancholic and acoustic ones (like "overs" and "old friends" from the bookends album)

Can you do Panda Bear’s Person Pitch? Please?

When my father passed he planned it to where he died at home cremation center picked him up abd he donated his organs total process cost 1250 and he paid up front.

If you actually get to interview billy and Kenny I would hope you can ask them why haven’t they named their duo “KenWood Speakers”. The name is perfect.

You got heart Tell it true also

Bonjour professeur! Avez-vous un playlist de chansons québécois? Je suis entrain d'apprendre la langue française avec le programme explore à l'université de Laval. Un de mes professeurs nous a déjà donner un et je voulais savoir si tu en avais un a partagé.

Yes, this album deserves to be reviewed. And you ran into a door.

You may have another retro review necessary on your hands, as "Niggarati" is very well possibly a Mach-Hommy reference from Dollar Menu 3 😏

this guy has a such a weird internet niche, the most bourgeois man imaginable engaging with a largely subaltern genre

Maps is fantastic. But HP is so much better imo. The subject matter makes it more appealing to me.

Any sane working class person in this country should know we our living in the belly of the beast.

Day 123 of Asking you to Review Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youth

Now do Today I Wrote Nothing!

civilised countries have free healthcare btw avaa

Damn you went over spider holes too fast imo. It also just occurred to me that his line “ I don’t wanna see NAS with an orchestra at Carnegie hall” is kinda antithetical to a lot of your work. You’ve talked about wanting to elevate rap and hiphop or at least help lend legitimacy to it. And woods seems vehemently against this.

I think you breezed spider hole abit too quickly. The line about nas at carnegie isn't about the fear of reflection, but rather the abject nature of classical music and the nuances of classism involved. There were times when hiphop wasn't even respected by this class of musicians and now they want them at carnegie hall. Nas being accompanied by an orchestra is not only seen as a essentially an exploitive move of nas on both ends, but woods feels as if he would sacrifice his own ideals by participating in such a spectacle.

Woods fans read books

Don’t forget to ask woods if he meant to mispronounce pyrrhic

Bro, you just said, “let me help these people with my musicianship… he has a skill and he’s giving it to hiphop.” I know you said the first part satirically but you’re still really othering hiphop and placing Kenny segal as the norm and hiphop and Blackness as other. Weird thing to hear on your channel. I know you’re fallible, obviously, but damn, that tone was crazy.