If professors aren’t teaching billy woods lyrics in literature classes after this album drops then we’ve failed as a species

nah this is exactly how long a video on billy woods should be.

Great video, as a Nigerian I loved the Soyinka reference. Also the "S" in Soyinka is pronounced as "sh" so it sounds like "shoyinka"

This isnt a video, is a masterclass

I love these types of reviews for well thought out albums. You're doing a great service for fans like us Prof.

I absolutely loved every second of this review Professor Skye. I'm an English major in the last leg of my studies, and if I'm honest, I haven't been entirely sure what direction I've wanted to take my life in after I graduate. I've thought about going to grad school, law school, going into marketing at some bullshit company I only work for for the money-none of which are bad paths of course, but they have not grasped at me and said, "Hey! This is your calling!". But this album and your review of it has me thinking, "What if this is something I could bring to the Academy?" Because sure, it's important to dissect The Illiad and the Romantics and take from them what they've taught us, but when I think about the bards and poets of our era, it isn't some white guy locked in his Ivory tower. It's Woods, It's K.Dot, Earl Sweatshirt and many more who are driving the conscience of our era. Like, it's no surprise Kendrick's "Alright" is a protest chant for the Black Lives Matter movement. Nor does it surprise me that Mersault's murder of the Arab man pops up in "Versailles". I was JUMPING up and down when I heard that bar. These men and women are so important to American and world culture, and it just feels wrong that this work isn't being recognized for its literary genius. Maybe it's something I can work to help change.

Yeeeeeees billy woods!!!!!!!!! Love any attempt at analysis of this artists work. It's cryptic but direct and biting everything feels so personal. Hiding Places is one of my favourite albums and has been since it came out. Aethiopes is crazy as well, first time I heard Wharves I stopped dead in my tracks to appreciate the instrumental. His lyrics need to marinate with me though, they come from a place I'm not familiar with and take lots of listens to get all the layers and even then I keep finding new things

His work hit a really personal for me, I feel like he is a voice for the poor and forgotten. Also would love an essay on Lee Scratch Perry.

billy woods’ 2019 solo project Hiding Places is also a collaboration with a single producer, Kenny Segal, lending itself to be another cohesive sounding album full of dark eerie drones, fuzzed out guitars, and massive bass hits. A highlight in Woods prolific and consistently great discography, the album is one of Wood’s most personal narratives discussing themes of childhood, U.S. imperialism, and isolation. Definitely recommend checking it out Prof. Skye!

All I’ll say is that Billy Woods should be appreciated as a great musician because beyond his musical aesthetic, he coalesces a lot of the greatest aspects of the Black intellectual musical and philosophical tradition. His work combines an ethnographic approach- similar to Pearl Primus, Katherine Dunham, and Alvin Ailey-to storytelling, combining the geopolitics and philosophy of “Black” people’s across several countries in order to deconstruct Blackness as a concept and a matter of being. His work exhibits a degree of substantive meta-commentary that I don’t believe most contemporaneous rappers actuate: other-ness, exoticism, colonialism, African separatism, the universality of the Black experience but it’s lack of fidelity in describing these peoples via exaggeration, defamation of Black art, the concept of savagery, indigeneity as a slur, royalty in the Black context, Africa, Jamaica, the blues and jazz, and the concept of the Black intellectual. His oeuvre is cavernous in depth but idiosyncratic in presentation and initially impenetrable.

Always a treat to hear you discuss woods, it always deepens my understanding of his work. One small thing that I love is woods keeps themes/motifs throughout his albums. The MF DOOM reference "Notice parables of three and every other inference" on Protoevangelium is the hook of the Armand Hammer song Parables. woods has a beautiful album called Hiding Places and there are descriptions of hiding on this album as you describe. The challenger line reminded me of the first line of Armand Hammer's Pommelhorse. Little things like these make me love woods even more, makes all his work feel connected in a way.

im so glad you found billy woods man. just saw him live last week and he is electric and intense in person

One thing that you don't mention specifically but that I think adds even more depth to the opening lies is that the gardener is the one who is sent to look for him when he is hiding in a high place, in the "sky". A gardener would be good at looking at what comes from the ground, him trying to find someone in the sky seems like the wrong man for the job. Amazing video, thank you for this and thank you to the people over at letterboxd' Kongi's Harvest page that recommended you. This is the type of discussion work like this deserves

This is exactly the kind of in-depth discussion of woods' music that I've been craving. Thank you. I hope you review all of his projects in time.

At 1:11:30 I interpreted that line about “glass eyes” as teary eyed and never even considered the physical glass eyes. Incredible stuff.

"Accruing generational wealth by inflicting generational trauma" is a hell of quite Professor. Kudos! I love the train of thought Billy Woods put you in

I think the Ock in the weed line is a reference to corner stores moreso than anything else. Also I was wondering if you noticed like the sonic progression. The earlier songs on the album sound very tribal, for lack of a better word, and as we progress we get songs that incorporate blues, then jazz, then reggae, then soul. To me that’s very chronological.. with The Doldrums being the sonic representation of the middle passage. Just some random ideas about the record….

Thank you for this Skye, I really appreciate all the effort you put into these and I always love your analysis!

Thanks for reviewing this professor! Can't wait to hear your thoughts

El-P’s a Brooklyn native, just as a note. Breeze Brewin is an amazing artist you would enjoy looking into. Him, his brother and sister formed The Juggaknots in the mid 90s and have an underground classic titled Clear Blue Skies; even if you can’t check the whole project, that title track alone could be material for an entire video. Breeze was also the main character in Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves album, which you may have heard? Hopefully, you have a little time to check Breeze out if you get a chance.

Cannibal Tours is probably a reference to the 1988 documentary of the same name lambasting the way European and American tourists behave when visiting developing countries

Been waiting for this review! Thanks professor

Absolutely love the billy woods reviews. Always a million directions to look afterwards and the music gets so much better

Anytime I need help understanding an album, I know Prof Skye has got my back! Your analysis on this one was MUCH appreciated :)

I got a feeling Billy has watched this Professor. Most people probably just review his music at a very surface level but you really get into it and try to understand it and something tells me he appreciates you very much for that. From watching your channel, I've learned so much about the music I love so much and with your help I feel like I understand it a lot better now. Thanks for all you do! 🙏

if you enjoy the bombardment of references and knowledge in this album i would really reccomend hiding places to you professor. Houthi is one of my favorites my interpretation of the song is really built on the lines "a labyrinth is not a maze" which is a fantastic analysis of first world government's intentional entrapment, resource stripping, and destabilization of countries and regions all over the world that leave their people in a labyrinth, not a maze.

Really glad you touched on that “my accountant is…” bar. It was the most moving to me, for many personal reasons. Amazing review overall, can’t wait to dig into all the references that you dug up for us. Thanks!

AMAZING review. Thank you for all your work on it. Was really excited to hear your take on it.

Thank you so much for this analysis Professor. I would love to delve deeper into lyrics like you do but it takes so much research. I really respect what you do and this video has made me love this album and want to explore its themes even more!

Brilliant review Professor, had been waiting on this one

Let's gooo, was hoping you'd review this album

I'm so glad you convinced me to watch Kongi's Harvest, this was already one of my favorite albums and now I enjoy it even more, understanding all the context, especially for Haarlem. Love the reviews!

The fuzz focus in the background is just fine prof

Hi Professor, Great and very insight review of this work by billy woods. I learned a lot! One note - El-P is an NY lad

What a phenomenal review. Thanks Professor!

Such a great review, thanks so much for all your hard work as always. You never to deliver incredible vids

usually i'm not trying to stick around for a video this long, but this is probably my favorite review that you've done! very informative and engaging and i always appreciate your perspective! you should teach an online class, i would definitely enroll

I’ve been waiting for this one 🔥🔥🔥

I would love to attend one of your classes one day. Your lecturing style is wonderful and you’re also a fellow WNY resident! Fantastic video

Thank you for this informative review. Billy Woods is new to my musical radar. Man, have I missed out. When you spoke of Mike Ladd it took me back to his Welcome to the Afterfuture album and his Infesticons/Mejesticons era. I would definitely recommend taking a listen whenever you get a chance. Now, on to watch Kongi’s Harvest.

Deepest review, I've ever seen! GJ and thank you for it!

Preservation and Ka did an Album together back in 2015, themed and named after the movie character Dr. Yen Lo. Dense bars as always, plus you have the comparison of Yen Lo brainwashing and manipulating people into being murderers, and the streets of BK, NY back in the 80s doing pretty much the same thing. I know you dont go back in time to check out older records of artists, but I didnt want to not leave this comment, because you appear to like both Preservation and Ka. Cheers from a german university student!

Really beautiful think piece, thank you skye, U gave us plenty of homework 📚 🙏🏾

Absolutely brilliant album. Thanks for the hard work put into this.

Love and respect professor you really are inspiring me to become the best version of my self

Found this album through my professor who assigned listening to the whole thing on the first week last semester. Loved this video very insightful

Great video as usual, you kinda made my head spin so I'll probably re-watch in a week or so

26 minutes in and i forgot about Kongi’s Harvest when i was choosing a movie to watch tonight! Definitely gonna watch it as soon as possible. Aethiopes is already one of my favorite albums ever and im so happy to see a video this in depth about it! First time watching your channel and i really love how educated (duh i guess, a professor) you are, such as speaking about how bad the word exotic is. Gonna continue this video tomorrow since its 3am

Really was a fantastic review, ill definitely check out the movie before my next listen!

Love this!! Haha your longest videos are the most fun

Also, if you like Preservation's production style, you will love his album 'Eastern Medicine, Western Illness'. He has an All-Star cast of artists on there including: Billy Woods, KA, Navy Blue, Mach-Hommy, Your Old Droog, and so many great rappers. All of the samples come directly from China via Hong Kong. Only a few compilation/ collaborative albums have really caught my fancy, but this is one that I come back to every now and then.

I was waiting for this

First review I have fully watched, great stuff! Gained a subscriber :)

If I were to pick a definitive Woods album if you're looking to better understand him even further, I would without a doubt say "History Will Absolve Me." Still probably his best (aside from maybe Aethiopes), it was his first solo album after an 8 year break doing group stuff, and the cover features a picture of Mugabe to give a preview of the personal and radical nature of the content

This is so far my favorite album of the year, woods is always on point. Preservation created arguedbly one of the best soundscapes of this year.

i love how passionate you are about music

Thank you Professor... worth the wait

I think billy woods art is influenced by theorists like Fred Moten/historians working in the wake of Cedric Robinson IE Robin DG Kelley. Said for sure, too. Motens book In The Break specifically reminds me of woods every time i go back to it. thanks for the thoughtful review, youre on of the only people on youtube equipped to even approach reviewing woods. i think youd get a lot out of his whole corpus

Professor I am incredibly grateful for this review. The first listen of Aethiopes was incredibly frustrating because I knew this album had such great reception and was incredibly dense but I couldn’t gather much meaning from the tracks. Your track by track breakdown has help to uncover an album that provides an incredibly needed and accessible social commentary of the exploitation and commodification of dark-skinned men as a means of economic and social gain for the fair-skinned. I’m excited to continually listen to this album and gain more meaning from it through every listen.

The album cover is actually would drew me into wanting to listen to the album because I must admit I wasn't the biggest Billy Woods fan out there before, but just casually listened to him. Now listening to this album has made me a fan and he is in my top 5 dead or alive and I have been binging his music as well as the Armand Hammer albums. I love oil paintings from those early centuries as well as line drawings, lithographs, and Chromeo lithographs. Such deep historical, introspective, and meta lyricism. His music makes me want to study what he says even further and dissect everything as well as wishing I had came up with the barz!

Excellent and educational. Thank you sir for this analysis

Thank you for everything you've done professor Skye

THANK YOU! really great insight, and good awareness of yourself. always in for woods, and will second other people's recommendations for his Hiding Places record, but I will also throw in there that you should check out Ka. You desperately need to check out Ka, and I know you hear that about a lot of artists, so do what you will. Specifically I recommend Orpheus vs. The Sirens, Honor Killed the Samurai, and Descendants of Cain. all love, x.

I think the line about watching the planet from orbit remorseless is a reference to kongi's harvest and how space is a metaphor for the opposite of progress

Well done video. This needs way more views.

I just wanted to thank you for trying to break down what Billy is doing with this album. You should come out to the shows!

Thank you for providing tuition free courses!

May be your best review yet... can't wait for you to get into more billy woods solo, and more Armand Hammer! I recommend _Hiding Places_ and _Paraffin,_ respectively, as the next albums to listen to. BTW Hope your enjoying solo Frusciante!

Amazing and so educational! Learned a lot here thanks 🙏 Meanwhile I can’t wait to see a vid on the other best hiphop album of ‘22: JID - The Forever Story

Please do another billy woods album the depth and knowledge you give is very interesting for someone who just listens to the album and enjoys it for what it is

Great review Billy is way underappreciated scaffolds is one of my favorite songs. Check out Steel Tipped Doves Album "Call me when your Outside" he has a lot of cool Billy Woods verses on it. And STD doesn't have anywhere near the attention he should he is a nice guy and artful producer.

Amazing work as always! You should also check Sadistik x Kno - Bring Me Back When The World Is Cured. Sadistik is definitely top 5 lyricist ever in my opinion.

damn son, thats a great video. thank u for putting the album in a cultural and historical context like that. it is very important for people to see this stuff on youtube, there is no (university and school) class as big as this plattform.

appreciate this so much

I wish there was a way to like triple like a video on youtube for special occasions and you have a limited number of triple likes or something idk. I wish there was some way to express how amazing this video is without me having to write this comment because I don't like having to word my thoughts but just wow. This video is amazing thank you for making it, I loved every second of it.

PHENOMENAL review sir. 👏

it's definitely the best rap album of the year so far. thanks for the deep dive, i'm lookin forward to listening again with the additional historical and cultural context. his LP with Moor Mother is super great, folks are right.

Thank you so much for this. I am going to be honest, being Dutch (from the birthplace of Rembrandt, Leiden, and living in the city where the Mauritshuis is located, The Hague!) these are quite challenging rappers to understand, at least all of it. So, just a thank you for your analysis on these great poets. Btw, you should definitely visit Haarlem, one of the most beautiful cities in The Netherlands. Beautiful architecture, very historical, beautiful nature as well. Not a lot of ethnic diversity, but still a beautiful city. Cheers!

This album was beautiful and you've convinced me to watch the movie.

Breeze Brewin is from the Juggaknots. Another group worth checking out.

10:31 that pause was really important to let people realize the word you said, thats cool

Haven't heard this one yet, but really interested. My favorite Billy Woods records are Hiding Places and Brass, both worth a listen.

My father is a researcher/professor, even has a doctorate, but only my youngest sister seems to be following his prime. Me and my other sister chose to drop out and work blue collar and customer service jobs. Believe me when I say that it wasn't easy for our dad to accept that, which made it difficult for us to follow our path guiltfree

id definitely reccomend checking out Hiding Places and History Will Absolve Me. Both fantastic and cohesive albums with intense themes

Nice video dude! You're absolutely right about taking ArtHistory! Bet you didn't know about the billy woods bladee pipeline.

Great review man, since you liked this album I would highly recommend an album by Juggaknots (the rapper Breezly Brewin is in it) called Re:Release which is filled with amazing songs you absolutely will love. Amazing storytelling and it has a similar vibe to this.

I just learned so much

I know you've heard it plenty but "Hiding Places" is so so worth the listen, it's also under a single producer (Kenny Segal who you may know from the group who produced that first R.A.P. Ferreira record) I really hope Billy keeps up the pattern of using single producers, even though I enjoy "History Will Absolve Me", "Hiding Places" and "Aethiopes" each having a single producer really helps Billy build such a strong and distinct atmosphere that makes the albums work as much as a whole piece rather than just collections of tracks. Billy's work demands such a uniquely ominous and surreal atmosphere it's so interesting to see these producers interpret how to bring that vibe to life for a whole record.

Fantastic review

I very much so preferred your break down of the album over the actual album.

Hey man this breakdown is amazing I love your channel I only found it recently but I been checking out tons of your videos. Can you do this type of review on billy woods 2012 project History Will Absolve Me. It’s one of my favourite records of all time and I feel like I’m barely catching half of what’s going on and would love to hear ur thoughts on it.

God I love this channel

Stop loss could be another Wall Street/stock reference too I think? It’s a setting where you can force a stock to sell once it falls below a price/threshold, preventing it to completely tank.

That's definitely U-Roy in the beginning of "Protoevangelium". I'm really scratching my head to find out where's the sample from. furthermore, i'm really curious of your taste in Reggae, because you mentioned some classics already in your earlier video's.

Wtf i spent the whole day listening to this album for the first time and I HAD TO search up so much of this album to not let this all go over my head… even then this album is so dense that it’ll take MONTHS to feel like I can kinda grasp most of what Billy is conveying and all the inner workings of these bars

Your reviews are amazing bro When your talking about shit like this especially your in your ELEMENT shit is inspiring and really gives me new perspective and investment in a project

This is a great vid , I've already commented but I'd like to thank you. I really enjoy this album, and I've also had this gravitational pull to his music from immediately the first listen. Billy woods is such a great artist. And again preservation has created such a great soundscape for this album. I feel like I'm reading a book, or watching an avant-garde movie. I love this album and it's currently my number 1 this year.

Nice one fam, big up!

That Mike Ladd line analysis is very compelling

A few small thoughts- 1. On “Christine”, I definitely think Mike Ladd is also shouting out Skippy Whites (record shop) on that line. 2. I loved the “pillars of salt” ref to Lot’s wife on “Remorseless” 3. billy woods has an earlier song “Gilgamesh” and the video plays out a hotel scene where he “towels the door”, I feel like that entire episode has stuck with him through his discography, with various mentions of this rendezvous on a number of levels. Thanks for your analysis. Excellent!