I actually spoke to Billy woods after his recent show in San Antonio, And I asked if he had heard of your Aethiopes review, He said he'd heard of you but hadn't gotten around to watching the review. Artists watch their fans, he's listening.

"Before history, I made fire in a cave" is a double because it's also a reference to what many consider to be his breakout album, History Will Absolve Me. He's saying that before that album, he was still creating "fire in a cave".

The first line on Kenwood Speakers (the first track from Maps) is "I'm leaving tomorrow but I got time today" that reminded me of a line from Smith + Cross (the last track from Aethiopes) which goes "Here today, Gone tomorrow, sorrow"

In NYC tapwater, he mentions lapping the B48. The bus runs from Prospect-Lefferts Gardens through BedStuy into Williamsburg and Greenpoint, physically embodying bw's movement from Black into white spaces as his star rises. The bus is also slow, which is why he can lap it in the 20 years he's been at his craft.

The quote ''Every victory pyrrhic, every, every live show forget the lyric'' is a direct reference to the Armand Hammer song ''Rehearse With Ornette'' from their 2018 ''Paraffin'' where Woods says in the beginning of his verse ''Every victory pyrrhic, every live show forget the lyric Forty doing Tae Bo Who'd've guessed this be how I finished''

The professor not only has great taste in music, but also some of the best intellectual-without-being-pretentious takes. I love hearing your insights.

"before history i made fire in a cave" is also a reference to History Will Absolve Me, his breakthrough album. Before he made that, he was releasing to a much smaller audience, which he's comparing to making fire in a cave in a genius way.

as usual french professor inspiring us by how he makes his reviews. i salute you cause i didn't even know that l've watched an almost 1.5 hour review lol. billy woods is a modern day poet. such insane complexity within the lyrics. kenny segal did really great production on this project too, goes unbelievably hard. Since "history will absolve me" which was released 12 years ago, woods has been absolutely killing it. both in solo projects and as a part of the armand hammer duo, he's proven to be one of the smartest, most intricate mcs of all time. maps is my album of the year til now. cheers from saudi arabia 🇸🇦

avaa. On my way to the Billy Woods interview, finished the whole vid! Really enjoyed the narrative created and talked about through the album. Billy woods makes great art. Can’t wait to hear you to talk to em!

the hook on soundcheck “every victory phyrric…” comes from a woods verse on “rehearse with ornette” from armand hammers fantastic album paraffin. my favorite album of all time, i know you don’t go back to old albums much but it is really a perfect album that is a must must listen!!!

Fellow Skye here - I also reviewed the album and compared it to Call Me If You Get Lost! I think you're right that it's an intentional inversion, about grounded and unglamorous touring and the sense of statelessness that kind of life brings up.

Man, what a quick upload. Album just dropped, glad you got to check it out. Also, just go back and give BRASS by billy woods and Moor Mother a listen.

That "birds fly high" was a nina Simone reference

Oh It came to mind you didnt give Hiding Places a review, and it warrants a listen if you like this second project by billy and Kenny.

Just about everything Kenny Segal touches is gold imo, one of my favorite producers ever. I first found him through his work with the Ruby Yacht (Milo/R.A.P. Ferreira) and it was his name being on Hiding Places that made me listen to it and absolutely fall in love with billy wood's work. Funny thing is, for some reason, I didn't go into this one expecting to love this one anywhere near as Hiding Places or Aethiopes despite it being the perfect recipe for an album I absolutely love, but then Babylon by Bus and Year Zero hit back to back and it was up there with one of the best listening experiences I have had in awhile. I will never doubt them again, they are a GOATed dream team and I hope they just do collabs like this every few years for the rest of time.

Thank you so much for your work

This is one of the best album analysis and review videos I have ever seen. Great stuff.

You're a master at coming up with a caption that would make me watch a review that is almost twice as long the actual album

I've never turned on notification bell for any channel ever, honoured to turn it on for your reviews. Stellar work! Attentive and inspired

looking forward to watching this with a coffee in the morning. thank you for this.

Thanks! Great review!

THANK YOU PROFESSOR!!!

Thanks for the Kenny interview tip🙏🤘

You're right about the algorithm I Lowkey thought you stopped making videos 😅 glad to be tapped in again!

thank you for your insight as always daddy prof

The "Before History" line is making reference to his solo album History Will Absolve Me, I think. Love from Brazil, man!

Mandatory comment for Prof Skye, the Matt Zoller Seitz to Woods' Wes Anderson. Appreciate the video

Thank you for bringing to my attention the line "the form of a cirty changes faster than the mans heart" now i want to read baudelaire!

This album is addictive bc of the layers of the lyrics and production

Love this album already only listened couple times so far gonna listen all weekend. Love Kennys production but Woods is STILL stepping up his writing im always surprised. Almost every track is a little story of travelling and some of the images he makes are vivid as hell like on Year Zero and Hangman. My favorite track so far is NYC Tapwater.

1. Avaa 2. Both in ancient greek and latin pyrrhus is pronounced with the 'p'. This is the right pronunciation:) 3. It's great that they gave you early access to the album. I really hope you can have the opportunity to interview him (and actually every artist you review), because it would be interesting to see how much of your deep analysis matches with the intentions of the artist. As Borges said, sometimes poets go beyond their own intentions, and this can be revealing of a part of them that they had in the past only superficially considered. I think an artist looking at your reviews can feel enriched in a therapeutic sense or at worst misunderstood. When you do reviews, do you ever think that your role might fall into one of these two categories? 4. I'm beginning to listen to and study the album with your guide in mind. Thanks!

Hiding Places is must

The Hangman audio sample is Paul Mooney speaking, I believe it's from a Chapelle Show skit (kinda funny how u were also talking about Chapelle in the review) Also I interpreted "Every Victory Pyrrhic" as a play on words with Fear It. That he's afraid of victory cause it might give him more trouble and that's why he "forgets the lyric" cause he's too afraid that his wins in his rap career would be leading to a bigger loss in his humanity or his relationship.

another phenomenal billy woods review and another phenomenal billy woods album, can't wait to listen to this and call me if you get lost throughout an overseas trip at some point in the future

Another absolutely incredible review... thanks, Prof! "Year Zero" kills me, too - beat, bars, flow, etc. I'm cool with a 6 hr loop of that beat, as well. _Maps_ is another woods masterwork! [BTW: Whoaaaaa - you got FD Signifier to assist in your HipHop class?!? _That's_ a flex! 💪🔥 Would've loved to see his talk on "black death" and its commodification...] Praying you go back to review the first woods/Segal album, _Hiding Places,_ one of the great albums of the 21st Century... as well as Armand Hammer's _Paraffin,_ where "every victory pyrrhic; every live show, forget the lyric" originally appears - like many fans, they're my favorite woods and Armand Hammer projects, respectively. ~ Apparently _Hiding Places_ is getting a re-release this year so it's a great excuse to make an exception and review an older project (a la _Haitian Body Odor)_ 😁 You've gotta at least hear it for your own gratification... Edit: I love how you spoke on the bittersweet. My favorite rock musician, Josh Homme, famously calls touring _"the Bittersweet Curse"_ - or as he says, "nothing is better than coming home... and nothing is better than _leaving_ home."

that aphex twin flip on babylon by bus is insane

NYC tap water is the hip hop version of Proust's madeleine. But anyhow, thanks for this superb review of an instant classic album. Insightful as always.

YESSSS!

Hey Skye, thanks again for the review. But it’ll just let you know that this vid did not show up on my algorithm at all. I just happened to be on your channel and see that you uploaded. Keep doing what you’re doing, I always love hearing what you have to say about albums, it makes me appreciate it even more

kenny segal is renowned for dropping desks rhythmically and grilling pineapples

Great review of a great album

I'm floored by this vid

easyJet still exist as a company, but are notorius for offering cheap, overbooked and cramped flights inside continental Europe. The implication of playing stupid games and flying easy jet implies, at least for me, that woods is weighing up the balance between releasing something he truly believes in and taking a risk "playing stupid games" with the lack of financial success that results in him taking a cheap flight between shows. It kind of contrasts with the $300 uber he takes later on the album as well.

Loved the review, would love to hear your thoughts on hiding places even though you dont revisit albums as it is probably my favourite album

The best part about woods is how he can be so specific in diction yet vague in meaning. For example, over the past day or so I’ve been theorizing “hangman” being him personifying an atom bomb. Haha as weird as it can be to come to that conclusion. It’s obviously not well thought out at all yet but the “snow capped peaks” with ideas of Sikhs being somewhat alienate in a foreign place. “New lovers suck me deep” would be a hilarious way to describe the Middle East’s (or North Korea for that matter) relatively recent flex of nuclear weapons. “I don’t sleep I hover outside myself” maybe a Cold War reference and how the atom bomb has kinda just been on the shelf pretty much all of its existence. “My shell mechanical” “Any day could be the day they frogmarch you in manacles” imagery pops of a country either showing up a nuke like it’s a fashion show, or simply the use of one. “No need to ask who sent you it’s always been a question of when” Anxiety inducing line about how nukes are becoming more widespread and the question of when becoming more and more prominent than who. “It’s the things you can’t undo” “I’m old I go in the booth like cocoon” - another reference to how they sit on the shelf. “Rappers protégé’s get too big drift out of orbit rogue moons” first thing I think is simply nuclear tests. ALSO, this line could be a commentary on Travis Scott. Kanye protege, astroworld reference, lack of content likened to drifting out of orbit of the public eye. “Gas got ‘em gasping at the fumes” “Before seeking revenge dig two graves, one for you, one for them” This could all be a huge reach but having these conversations in the first place is a testament to the greatness of woods. I still feel like I have no firm grasp about what he’s talking about whatsoever.

A few weeks before the album came out we had a description of what the album is about. Maps is a story of the road, or roads, taken and untaken; of living the dream and dreaming of another life. It is an album about trying to find your way home, after making your home wherever you lay your head.

I can't wait to hear your review of the new posthumous album by the late great Gord Downie (of Tragically Hip) which he recorded with Bob Rock prior to his passing. It's extraordinary.

Just listened to this album repeatedly. The fluidity of this traveling/touring motif like Church but with Kenny Segal production once again like Hiding Places. We need more billy woods and Danny Brown tracks 😂 Edit: Shoutout Kennedy Fried Chicken's burgers and fries more than their chicken hot take 🤷‍♂️

Hello yes ples review hiding places it is easily one of my favorite albums. It was how i was introduced to billy. At first i thought it was weird when my friend showed it to me but the more i listened to it the more i enjoyed how layered and esoteric the writing is. How vividly woods paints pictures of isolation and poverty. I would be really interested to hear your thoughts and interpretation of it.

Phenomenal review. Gave me a lot to think about, as if the album itself didn't already do that lmao 😂

that phyrric line is an interpolation of an Armand Hammer song called "Rehearse with Ornette" (if you hear the beat you'll recognize it from a Mach Hommy song), but I don't know how to pronounce it

Crazy to see the different interpretations of the Dion Sanders line. I took it as a reference to Dion Sanders taking a decently big job as Colorado University's head football coach after a successful stint coaching Jackson State, an HBCU. After taking the CU job, Sanders started making comments about looking for QB's from dual parent households (pot -> kettle) and linemen being kids that are on free/reduce lunch, single parent homes. After a rapid trajectory exemplifying black excellence in athletics, Sanders almost immediately sounds like the same, white coaches that are currently aging out of CFB.

I have a teeeny request - do you think you could bookmark at the timeframe you introduce the next song?? Would be cool because I come back a lot to your videos and have to navigate back and forth a lot to find when you introduce a song I’m looking for 😅

Handsome Boy Modeling School based on an episode of the best sitcoms ever Get A Life. Chris Elliott…comedy legend. Sampled throughout that legit hip hop album. Keep up the great work Prof.

❤ iz Srbije

The "too much fun" quote at the end of Hangman comes from Paul Mooney on a segment of Chappelle's Show called "Ask a Black Dude", where he dropped a couple of gems about being black in a society dominated by whiteness. Another one that comes to mind would be "Everybody wanna be a n*, but don't nobody wanna be a n*"

As someone else said, this is a follow up to the 2019 album woods made with Kenny Segal called Hiding Places. I think hearing that album in conversation with this album will help contextualize some of it. Especially as the ideas evolve over time.

what I get out of the black Rubik’s cube line is that he’s kinda saying the world is always spinning but never really changing at all. the idea of motion without progression

I don't know where that quote about "grinning" at the end of that track is taken from, but no doubt that is the late, great Paul Mooney.

How many would tune-in to woods interviewed by Professor Skye? woods, make it happen, sir.

"Went the other way like Deion Sanders" - probably a reference leaning more towards his famous Interceptions were he'd run with the football the opposite way of play for a defensive Touchdown aka "Pick 6"

Professor actually so hilarious too 💀💀💀

Skye see that cd your holding del the funkee song magnetizing is why I rap. Thats the first song that blew my mind.

My only finding through Auditing your Woods and Armand Hammer videos is that you need to explore his back catalog, Armand Hammer as well. There are so many hooks and one liners that will connect the dots to a lot of those obscure references you might not be picking up on. He will say two words in a new song that are the two most important words in a song he/they released in 2013. With that said, thank you for aligning so tightly with my takeaway from this album. It’s great to have the opportunity to in a way pick your brain and see a lot of the same ideas.

I wish he continue on what storytelling through music.

in my eyes, there are two things going on with the Pyrrhic pronunciation. 1. He’s saying it right before saying “Forget the lyric,” so that lyric could be him forgetting the pronunciation. This lyric is also on the Armand Hammer song “Rehearse with Ornette.” 2. He read the word Pyrrhic as Phyrric (which I used to read it as).

Gotta drop the knowledge that woods' narrator was saying Kansas City, Missouri, not Kansas, in "Baby Steps." Super common misconception outside (and within) the Midwest that most of KC is in Kansas. I grew up outside of KCMO and was super excited when woods said Kansas City, Missouri until I got the gist he was not jazzed. I really appreciate your vids!

59:46 The quote at the end of hangman is a Paul Mooney quote. He was a standup comedian who cut his teeth. around the same time as Pryor, who wrote for the Richard Pryor show, in Living Color, and Chapelle’s show to name a few things. I’m not entirely sure what the quote is from but I’m certain it can be easily found. Edit: it’s from the Ask a black dude sketch on Chapelle show

Billy woods is the greatest rapper alive imo. Kenny segal is top 3 producers too. The fact you can speak about an album just straight for an hour proves this

I thought he said “every victory, fear it”

I'm curious if anyone was able to figure out this line from "Year Zero", "Common sense says my ancestors was the worstest of men, First sign of trouble, motherfuckers shimmy right out that human skin. Every time I feel like I almost understand the line another word from it throws me off again.

'bad dreams are only dreams' is potentially a Liquid Swords / GZA reference (Cold War).

"Bust shots at Big Ben, we got time to kill" - Big Ben is the famous gigantic tower clock in England, and busting shots at a giant clock = trying to kill time 🔥😅

Your observations remind me of both Gayatri Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak" and Adorno's writing on commodity fetishism

I'm interested in how these notions of celebrity relate to woods' continuing insistence on masking his face for the camera (he's not precious about it in person, I can confirm). As far as I understand his motivations are more rooted in political origins, but as he becomes more well known, it's interesting to see how he plays with it. The video for Soft Landing is a noteworthy development, where instead of hiding his eyes, he is hiding everything but his eyes. Anyone could composite his face from the available portions in numerous photographs, especially now that he's revealed his eyes, but this doesn't seem to be the point. He remains a fascinating artist and he's writing his ass off on this record. As for Kenny Segal, this is not what I had made myself expect, so I will need to sit with the album for a while to truly appreciate what he's doing. That's no bad thing as less immediate work often becomes a real favourite in the long term.

review the new busdriver album

The word youre looking for is Phyrric, this is a reference to an older line of his

Birds flying high you know how I feel is surely a reference to Nina Simone

You might revisit it later? So, after a week, you are done with it? That’s the problem with being a “music reviewer.” I still listen to most woods albums once or more weekly. Albums that came out a decade ago. I would hate to have my plate so full of new, possibly good music, that I couldn’t listen to what I wanted, when I wanted.

W

I feel like this album is a lot like dour candy and only dour candy in his discography, maybe not sonically but in terms of it sounds a lot more auto-biographical and about personal experiences

Your theory of dehumanization is interesting and well-thought out. But also, I think he's not going to soundcheck because he just needs one microphone and a line for his laptop. Getting to the venue at 4PM when you don't go on until 10 or 11 is the biggest beatdown. If you've got a 6-piece band with a bunch of audio needs, it can be crucial. But for a simple set-up, soundcheck is unnecessary and a waste of everyone's time. Based on my experiences of seeing him and AH, he'd rather be doing anything else and show up a bit before his set time.

how do you know all this stuff

Hi professor Sky, love your content and I have a artist recommendation. This artist has a song with andre 3000 and a album produced by tyler the creator. His name is $ilkMoney, a virginia based rapper who was in a now defunked group called divine council. He like mach hommy doesnt want the spot light so makes a effort to do everything in a underground level to let the music speak for itself. Think a hyper intelligent busta rhymes tackling social issues, alien conspiracies, black issues and delivering heady knowledge. I think youd have fun digesting that type of content. A song from his recent album that fits the criteria to me is "Cuummoney Amiliani" - $ilkmoney

39:04 - 39:12 listening to billy woods in a nutshell

11:00 unintentional drain

20:55

14:45

I believe the “Hose run from the exhaust pipe” line was a sex line. He was exhausted from laying the pipe on the host after spreading mischievous lies to her.

Humans have no clue who they walk amongst... The conversations we have about humanity and how Americans have viewed and criminalized blacks.... we have a wealth of culture and creativity that we would have never received from your schools or institutions in America. Most artists that I know and have known that have passed away was not doing music for you critics or mainstream Americans... we created music because we are muses and that's what resonantes from our inner souls... MF DOOM is my Big Brother and if humans really knew the truth it would blow your mind... But we didn't listen to hip hop or rap in the house... disable planets was on the same label at the time and they didn't know who they were until I played the song cool like Dat and they hated it... so we look at humanity from a way different perspective... It's really funny to me to see humans doing reviews as if their opinions really matter. True artist make music for themselves it's our form of therapy... I see you clones your all Parr of the simulation oh I'm sorry civilization... I'm laughing at you humans.. You truly don't get it... We can manipulate frequencies that can change your reality... Shout out K.M.D G.Y.P C.M. MF SAVAGES VANDALZ. 13 33 ORDO ABCHAO.

Jackman. ?

You need time stamps lol

John Ants danced and pranced around plants by chance he glanced at sycophants chants And then he $hit his pants!

Review Destroy Lonely’s new album: If Looks Could Kill

Stop mentioning Kanye in this man’s review. He’s a lot more interesting and not a Nazi

Sometimes, you get too pedantic.

Just a small thing but Backwoodzstudioz is a label the billy woods himself started and I think still does a lot of the work running so very likely he will see this or at least has seen your other reviews. Don't know if he was directly the one you interacted with but it's really not impossible

I wasnt expecting a Baby of the Year reference 😭😭😭🥲😂🤣🫡😮‍💨👌🙏🏽🫱🏼‍🫲🏻 AVAA Prof 🫡🙏🏽

He's probably pronouncing it [ˈfɪɹ.ɪk] and not [ˈpɪɹ.ɪk] because he forgot the lyric.