‘Genius.com makes me very sad about the state of reading comprehension in the US,” frowns Billy Woods. Given his often oblique wordplay and prolific output – nine albums in the last decade alone, plus more with his groups Super Chron Flight Brothers, the Reavers and Armand Hammer – the veteran rapper’s work must drive heavy traffic to the song lyrics database, whose users attempt to decode arcane wordplay and volunteer their own song interpretations. But, he sighs via phone from his New York apartment, “sometimes I want to tell them: ‘This song is about a date I went on, not the devastating toll of capitalism and racism.’ They come in with preconceived ideas and the belief that a song can only mean one thing, which is the strangest way to approach my music.”
Woods is used to being misunderstood. A recording artist for two decades now, he spent the first half of his maverick career languishing in obscurity (and still obscures his face in photos), but remained true to his voice and built a following that appreciates his kaleidoscopic rhymes and bruising worldview. His new album Maps is his finest and most accessible yet, and today, he’s the most feted underground rapper in the US – Earl Sweatshirt described him as “the rawest ever” and said he hoped to be “like billy woods when I grow up”.
