Hey there, if you're listening to this and you support us on Patreon, you can hear it via the Patreon page and free!

You're listening to Sound Opinions, and this week we've got one of the best blue singers around, performing live, Shemika Copeland. I'm Jim DeWorgatus.

And I'm Greg Kot. We'll also pay tribute to Gordon Lightfoot and review the new album from rapper Billy Woods.

That is a little bit of a track called FaceTime. It was the first single from the new album, Maps by Billy Woods, the rapper and producer Kenny Siegel, their second collaboration.

But Greg, holy cow, charting Billy Woods' discography is a big job. I think this is one of the most fascinating people and voices in hip-hop today.

Who is Billy Woods?

He grew up in Zimbabwe and the West Indies. Mom was a literary professor from Shemika. Dad was a Zimbabwean political refugee.

Wines up in New York, and from the beginning so talented that the collaborators, the list of collaborators in underground hip-hop, is stunning.

I was working with Vordue Mega of Cannibal OX, worked with MF Doom. These are all people you love, and several albums with elucid as the duo Armand Hammer.

I did my best to chart the discography. I have 16 albums, not counting the Armand Hammer records. If we add them up, 21 albums by Billy Woods since the late 1990s, early 2000s, and people are really excited about this collaboration with Kenny Siegel.

I grew up in Maryland, moved out to the West Coast, a cellist, a keyboardist, a percussionist, and a DJ producer. These two have a special affinity together.

As I said, this is their second album together. The hip-hop world is buzzing about it. Let's dive in and play another tune from Maps, and then we'll give our reviews. This is called Soundcheck.

I will not be a soundcheck. My watch the sun set only a city from a parapet or a pork bench. Head and abs flash, squat and tense on my way to the venue. They wave me in. I'm from where bottles got smashed. Don't be a headless spot. I'm tensed. I'm smiling like I'm not observing through the set. After courage, I sit for a while before I go get to check.

Then a soundcheck from Billy Woods and Kenny Siegel, the new album is called Maps. It is their second collaboration after their breakthrough record in 2019 hiding places. One of the best records of that year. That was the record where I'm going. This guy is unbelievably good.

Ever since with the Lucid Armand Hammer project in 2021 and now this album, we got to discuss this guy in the context of somebody like Kendrick. He is at that level before he lost the plot.

This hip-hop artist and this record confirms that every song, the detail, the level of detail in the rhymes, the way the sonic scenery keeps shifting. It's a road record, yes.

But I compared to like a Cormac McCarthy book, The Road, that 2006 novel, where it's really about the relationship between the father and the son.

This record is about the relationship of Billy Woods to New York, being away from New York for the first time as you mentioned since the pandemic. His relationship to hip-hop semi-stardom, which is starting to emerge with his own motives for doing what he does.

You know, when you look at a song like a soundcheck, I will not show up at soundcheck. He's like a spoiled rock star. Where is he going to be? He's either going to be at the sect one restaurant or he's going to be sitting on a bench on a parapet overlooking the city at night.

And then I love that. And then the self-doubt, every victory, peric, every, you know, every live show, I forget the lyrics, you know, he's sort of self-deprecating NYC tap water where he's reminiscent, you know, the jazzy backdrop, the watery electric keys creating this framework for these street scenes that are so, you know, there's a guy who loves the city and hates it at the same time.

And the detail of the little images that he draws out in that song are just so uncann.

And at the same time, what a song. The year zero is amazing. That tolling of the bell, those rumbling synths underneath.

...