GOLLYWOG - Billy Woods

The brand new project "GOLLYWOG" is honestly close to being RAOTY* for me. I had the new Larry June, 2 Chainz project "Life Is Beautiful" before as RAOTY personally, however Billy Woods has always been a really high ranking artistic rapper for me. His last solo project Maps was a top 5 rap album for me in 2023 and last years We Buy Diabetic Test Strips was top 3 overall for me.

The album starts off strong with great production from many different prominent producers like Conductor Williams, Kenny Segal, The Alchemist, EI-P, etc. It continues to provide excellent songs with fantastic story telling throughout the entire album. 

I love his projects where he doesn't exclusively use one producer like Maps and Known Unknows. Maps however is also one of my favourite albums of his so I can't really say that it doesn't create an incrediblely well tied together project that doesn't lose focus on the overall sound. This new album however has a really good overarching sound that these different producers get to experiment over with their own individual sounds and techniques that creates an incredibly fresh listening experience

I feel like Billy Woods has yet to reach the mainstream appeal that he almost received with his last project as Armand Hammer, however with this album, he is creeping closer and closer to that appeal that artists like Earl Sweatshirt and JPEGMAFIA have been receiving over the last few years, not being "mainstream" but popular enough to be part of mainstream culture.

I honestly think this album deserves a solid 8.5/10, not his best work, but certainly not bad in any regard.

* Rap Album of the Year