{"id":49316,"date":"2025-09-21T14:18:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=49316"},"modified":"2025-09-21T14:18:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:18:38","slug":"billy-woods-brighton-music-hall-9-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2025\/09\/21\/billy-woods-brighton-music-hall-9-17\/","title":{"rendered":"billy woods @ Brighton Music Hall 9\/17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography by Brianna Benitez<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by James Klein<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hide everything in the rhymes, that’s why I need it dark onstage.\u201d This line from woods\u2019 \u201cMake No Mistake\u201d set the tone for his \u201cGOLLIWOG\u201d Tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

billy woods, D.C.-born and Brooklyn-based rapper, came to Brighton Music Hall on Wednesday night to perform his recently released album, \u201cGOLLIWOG.\u201d The show emulated the horror movie theme of the critically acclaimed project, with woods\u2019 unlit silhouette as a faceless narrator delivering retrospective wordplay over avant-garde beats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fans packed the green-lit brick-walled room, buzzing about the current renaissance of lyrical hip hop. billy woods is a main contributor to this renaissance, constantly delivering meaningful bars full of history, intertextuality, and humor.<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

Before woods took the stage, Massachusetts rapper al.divino, with support from New Haven DJ and turntablist Mo Niklz, gave a high-energy set that showcased his production and writing chops. al.divino clicked his thumb and pointer fingers together as he rapped, as if he were writing each word with a pen. Next was New York rapper Gabe \u2018Nandez, another collaborator and part of woods\u2019 Backwoodz Studioz. \u2018Nandez also delivered a fun and energized set, performing one song, then throwing his hat off. His lyrics contained thoughtful messages about religion, psychology, and society through hard-hitting, retrospective wordplay. Both openers\u2019 stripped-down beats and creative wordplay got the crowd ready for woods\u2019 set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DJ Mo Niklz enlivened the audience with some turntable work, flipping East Coast samples from KRS-One and MF DOOM. woods took the stage and, before playing any music, said, \u201cGet rid of the bright lights in my face, it’ll be an easy night for y’all. Save everyone a lot of time editing their photos,\u201d leaving him in complete darkness besides the colorful backlighting.<\/span><\/p>\n

woods sat in the middle of the stage as \u201cJumpscare\u201d started to play, the unsettling sample sounding like a winding-up doll from a horror movie. This set the uneasy tone of the show, with woods introducing the golliwog doll character, a racist caricature he uses to explore the lasting psychological effects of colonialism, racism, historical trauma, and the insidious nature of oppression.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNo surprise to you guys; I didn\u2019t come to soundcheck,\u201d woods admitted after the first song, checking with the crowd if the beat and vocals were loud enough. With resounding \u201cwoos\u201d from the crowd, woods gave the sound person credit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He then went into the next two songs off \u201cGOLLIWOG\u201d: \u201cSTAR87\u201d and \u201cMisery,\u201d two fan favorites. woods enunciated each word as a stream of consciousness over the backing tracks, respectively produced by star producers Conductor Williams and Kenny Segal. After \u201cSTAR87,\u201d woods let the beat play out, staring menacingly at the crowd before breaking into \u201cMisery,\u201d rapping \u201cre-up on bad dreams, bag up screams in fifties,\u201d another ode to the late great MF DOOM through his song \u201cGas Drawls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

woods went into some of his previous work with Segal, including \u201cHangman,\u201d \u201cSpongebob,\u201d \u201cCheckpoints,\u201d and \u201ca day in a week in a year.\u201d He preached to the crowd, narrating stories through references to sixteenth-century proverbs, the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, Nigerian literature, and even the laws of physics. woods\u2019 storytelling entranced the entire crowd, his presence commanding attention as red lights circled behind his dark silhouette. \u201cCheckpoints\u201d was especially energetic, the audience yelling \u201cGrip! Grip!\u201d with woods. On \u201ca day in a week in a year,\u201d woods illustrated his narration, acting out the existentialist lyrics, from steering to getting struck by lightning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In \u201cA Doll Fulla Pins,\u201d woods further developed the metaphor of the golliwog doll as an insidious force that represents how colonial violence lingers, even in private spaces like homes. woods carefully enunciated and acted out each lyric, allowing the audience to imagine the doll surveilling him. He followed this with his 2019 track \u201cBirdsong,\u201d crying out the chilling narration of a murder story.<\/span><\/p>\n

woods ended his animated set with \u201cBorn Alone,\u201d rapping \u201cBorn alone, die alone, no matter who your mans is,\u201d another MF DOOM tribute, referencing King Geedorah\u2019s \u201cFazers.\u201d This existential message was a fitting way to end a show defined by its haunting poetic lyricism. He closed the night with gratitude for the crowd and his collaborators.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cGOLLIWOG\u201d tour captured its album\u2019s themes\u2014woods\u2019 typical nihilism with an extended unsettling metaphor, building an entertaining story and maintaining his energy and talent throughout the entire performance.<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography by Brianna Benitez Review by James Klein \u201cI hide everything in the rhymes, that’s why I need it dark onstage.\u201d This line from woods\u2019 \u201cMake No Mistake\u201d set the tone for his \u201cGOLLIWOG\u201d Tour. billy woods, D.C.-born and Brooklyn-based rapper, came to Brighton Music Hall on Wednesday night to perform his recently released album, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25371,"featured_media":49317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1895,1525,1523,15,1530],"tags":[2518,2246,2519,2517],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49325,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49316\/revisions\/49325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}