New York City experimental hip hop artist billy woods and legendary hip hop producer Kenny Segal joined forces to put out Maps on May 5th, 2023, and this might be one of my favorite releases of 2023 so far. It’s an experimental/abstract hip hop/rap record, with some great sample usage and jazzy elements, aligning nicely with woods’ typical style.
woods has been active in the hip hop scene since 2002, with Maps being his twelfth LP release. He founded Backwoodz Studioz, which is also the record label that he releases all his music under. Last year, he put out two records–Aethiopes and Church–both of which were met with positive reviews. I was excited to see what he’d do this year, and I was definitely not disappointed by Maps. It’s 17 tracks long but only 44 minutes, which makes it more accessible to listen to in one sitting, which is how I prefer to listen to new albums.
The album is a bit lighter in tone than the previous releases from last year, but still has woods’ signature weird, often funny, but still relatively harsh rhymes. It’s an album about being on tour, and reflections on having to travel around a lot. It starts off relatively light with “Kenwood Speakers”, and picks up in intensity towards the middle. His beats are extremely strong throughout, and his sample usage really stands out. He samples renowned electronic artist Aphex Twin’s track “#2” from Selected Ambient Works Volume II on “Babylon By Bus”. As a big fan of Aphex Twin, when I reached “Babylon By Bus” on Maps and heard the “#2” sample, I got very excited. It was incorporated into the track really well, and sounds awesome with woods’ verses over it. woods’ sampling is always cool, which is one of the biggest appeals of his music for me.
Kenny Segal’s production is also phenomenal, he does a great job. Segal and woods previously collaborated on woods’ 2019 album Hiding Places, which is another great record that is very well-produced.
There are some cool features on Maps as well, like rapper Danny Brown and singer Benjamin Booker. Brown’s verse on “Year Zero” is strong, bringing this track up as one of the strongest on the album. The transition between “Babylon By Bus” and “Year Zero” is also really smooth.
My favorite tracks are “Babylon By Bus”, “Year Zero”, and “FaceTime”. Maps is so far my favorite hip hop release of this year, and one of my favorite records in general of 2023. I’d give it 4.5/5 stars. I highly recommend it to any hip hop fans!