Philaflava.com ::

Posted: **Sat Mar 28, 2015 3:54 pm**

album leaked. after 1 and a half listen, this is great

Posted: **Sat Mar 28, 2015 9:20 pm**

"Don't look gift horses in the mouth/ check if they hollow"

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 5:56 am**

Album is great, much more down tempo and jazzy than I expected.

Got the leak, still will cop the official tomorrow.

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:51 am**

Cop the official now, instant download available with any purchase:
http://backwoodzstudioz.com/tag/billy-woods/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:09 pm**

Can someone PM me a link? i intend to buy. I just want to hear it now/

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:18 pm**

perlman wrote:Can someone PM me a link? i intend to buy. I just want to hear it now/

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 3:53 pm**

"if only there was some network of communication with built in search utilities which one might use to allow themselves an agency in procuring music, instead of doubling down on consuming music parasitically by not even putting forth a minimal effort to obtain the pirated copy"

that's literally a lyric on this album guys, not sure how he even made it rhyme but it slaps

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:00 pm**

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:11 pm**

Echo Leader wrote:

At the moment, this was the easiest option. Irony duly noted though.

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:34 pm**

I found it on the /mu/ boards, I think just by googling the title and "/mu/", but it's seriously worth a purchase. Really really good album. The second half is my shit.

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:52 pm**

I didn't love all the beats at first, but they're growing on me. Love that his albums never sound the same beatwise.

Conceptually doesn't seem as fully formed as some of his past work, but there's still a lot to digest here and that's a short sighted observation to make on a woods album after a few listens. I've kinda been wanting him to make shorter, more frequent albums for a while now, but he loves to pack as much as he can on 'em. Lotta shorter more experimental songs and hooks, not all are killer, but it's cool to hear him venturing out of his comfort zone a little.

Seems like there's quite a few instances of him reminiscing on past relationships, but I haven't picked up on any overarching themes.

Any favorite tracks so far? Warmachines is the obvious choice, couple more listens and I'm sure a few more tracks will start to jump out at me.

Posted: **Mon Mar 30, 2015 8:33 pm**

damn, dude sampled Lil Ugly Mane on "Dark Woods"

Posted: **Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:31 am**

Posted: **Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:43 am**

U-Boats and Zulu Tolstoy are my favorites.
I think the album's about the absurdity of reality. woods says it's about death.
I have a 2 1/2 hour interview to transcribe.

Posted: **Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:05 pm**

My favorites are Dark Woods, RPM, and Warmachines. Agree that it's more scattershot than any of Woods shit from the last few years (since Cowardly Threats, I'd say), but I think I kinda dig that about it. It's like sketches, not really as cohesive and fully formed. I was on the fence with some of the beats too, but they're mostly growing on me. The only thing I'm a little lukewarm on now is Henry Canyons, but I'm not mad at him or his verses on here.

Posted: **Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:51 pm**

I'm kinda digging Henry Canyons on here, especially the verse about a friend who OD'd but turned out to be ok. I didn't love the free EP Backwoodz put out for him last year or whenever, but I'm not giving up on him yet.

Other tracks that are turning into favorites are "Lost Blocks", "Born Yesterday", "Scales", "Dark Woods", and "Borrowed Time". When the sample from The Wire comes in over that beat on "Scales" it's just such a eureka moment.

Posted: **Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:34 pm**

I'm keen on African Dodger, Lost Blocks, Dark Woods, and Warmachines. Front to back great stuff though

Posted: **Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:04 am**

Yeah, I actually am kinda starting to dig that Canyons verse too, but that whole song is a bit too much for me. Scales is great though, that Wire sample is perfect. Lost Blocks and Borrowed Time are both really nice songs. Yeah, whole thing is good. Different, and unexpected, but good.

Posted: **Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:48 pm**

Album is really good. This year is reminding me a lot of 2012 recently, which was one of my favorite years for rap over the last 5-8 years.

Posted: **Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:54 pm**

Been thinking that too, mainly because the artists with the biggest standout projects from that year, for me at least - billy woods, TREE, Ka, Lil Ugly Mane - all either have already released or will soon be releasing big projects. All we need is a new Roc Marciano album...

Posted: **Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:00 pm**

Versive wrote:Been thinking that too, mainly because the artists with the biggest standout projects from that year, for me at least - billy woods, TREE, Ka, Lil Ugly Mane - all either have already released or will soon be releasing big projects. All we need is a new Roc Marciano album...

Definitely.

Plus for me - some of it is stuff that came out last year that I didn't discover until this year too. I hadn't listened to the ATOMS album, or Your Old Droog last year.

Kendrick had an album that year as well.

I would bet Roc will release something this year. Would be nice if it was Metal Clergy or a new full length and not a mixtape or compilation like his last couple things have been.

Just seems like there's a lot of quality rap music out these days.

Posted: **Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:51 pm**

I spoke with Woods today for the OC Weekly, we discussed the rise of political discussions in underground hip-hop and the role of interpretation - http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentalit ... ations.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Posted: **Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:05 pm**

Nice read.

RE: the conspiracy thing, woods has been skeptical of conspiracy theory stuff from the jump. I believe it's on Camoflague that he says in the intro to a song (maybe even the whole album?) something like "Nah man, there is no conspiracy, everything is exactly what it is."

I fuck with this sentiment. Conspiracies by and large are an over-simplification, an attempt to make sense out of current and historical issues that are already fucked up enough on the surface and need not be assigned mythology.

BTW, Dour Candy was the name of the woods/block album - "Tinseltown" was the first single.

Posted: **Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:30 pm**

Cool interview, definitely.

And yeah, the conspiracy theory shit is grating as fuck. It gets close lots of times to being a decent interpretation of history, but then it just goes so far off the rails and totally falls apart. I have students who get into it sometimes and I always try to talk them back off the brink and get them interested in more nuanced frames of understanding, but it almost never works and they end up streaming Alex Jones all damn day.

Posted: **Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:38 pm**

fourize wrote:Cool interview, definitely.

And yeah, the conspiracy theory shit is grating as fuck. It gets close lots of times to being a decent interpretation of history, but then it just goes so far off the rails and totally falls apart. I have students who get into it sometimes and I always try to talk them back off the brink and get them interested in more nuanced frames of understanding, but it almost never works and they end up streaming Alex Jones all damn day.

When I was in college, I was all about conspiracy theories. Never bought into the whole Reptilian overlord shit, or anything too nutso, but you couldn't tell me that Skull & Bones wasn't running the world. I could be oversimplifying now based on my own experiences, but I get the feeling that among recent generations (anybody who came of age around 9/11 basically), it's basically a phase that kids go through. And whether you see it happen or not, they eventually come out of it, hopefully as politically concerned citizens with a healthy distrust for authority if also a skewed view of history.

Posted: **Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:41 pm**

Thanks for reading guys, and thanks Versive for the correction on the intro, just fixed it. Always confuse the two since I wrote about "Tinseltown" so much before the album dropped.

Posted: **Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:46 am**

After getting to look at the production credits, it's pretty crazy how much heat Messiah Musik dropped on here. Produced 11 tracks, including almost all of my favorites, he's as consistently good as any rap producer out there right now. Album has so much replay value, HWAM is woods best album, but it can be tough to listen to front to back. TIWN has 24 tracks, but it never drags and is fun as hell to listen to.

Posted: **Wed Apr 08, 2015 1:08 am**

fourize wrote:Cool interview, definitely.

And yeah, the conspiracy theory shit is grating as fuck. It gets close lots of times to being a decent interpretation of history, but then it just goes so far off the rails and totally falls apart. I have students who get into it sometimes and I always try to talk them back off the brink and get them interested in more nuanced frames of understanding, but it almost never works and they end up streaming Alex Jones all damn day.

I agree that people can get very annoying regarding these type of issues. More annoying are those that believe everything they hear on cable TV news channels though. And if any of you think the government told the truth about the assassination of JFK, Malcolm X, not to mention 9/11 and tons of other debacles (watch HBO's Nixon by Nixon) throughout our history you're trippin'.

Posted: **Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:18 am**

9/11 was an inside job maaaaaaaaaaaaan

Posted: **Thu Apr 09, 2015 11:55 am**

http://babysallright.ticketfly.com/even ... -brooklyn/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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