billy woods moves through sharp, dense, dimly lit alleyways with such a breathless design that it forces the listener to accumulate detail without the need to relinquish momentum.** The route ahead shows how close reality lives next to terror. But woods has known this road forever, and he kept the receipts on Golliwog .

When Golliwog first dropped in early May, I watched the movie Cure (1997) along with billy woods and Dylan Green (@cinemasai) at Loudmouth Brooklyn to celebrate the release. As I was watching the movie, I noticed how Kiyoshi Kurosawa chose not to dramatize terror or glorify violence, but rather highlight the horrors woven into the daily routine. Cure explores how the modern lifestyle and society condition people towards acts of violence, while billy woods understands that as a lived fact. I thought about this connection when listening to “Waterproof Mascara” as billy woods rapped deeply about his haunting generational traumas and childhood abuse on the verses, while greening out on the chorus. Gloomy lyrics flow over a crying woman, a jumpscaring piano, and a spooky bassline provided by legendary producer Preservation.

“House full of gas/ my kids cried then laughed right after/ psychopaths/ I watched the slave cry for his master/ waiting for him to break kayfabe/ But the poor bastard just sat there/ supper untouched/ You can’t make this shit up, but you’re welcome to try”

Kiyoshi Kurosawa uses Cure to imagine how society conditions violence in a patchwork style of storytelling. I started to imagine billy woods stitching together Golliwog , assembling an all-star cast of collaborators (ranging from E L U C I D and The Alchemist to SadhuGold and Conductor Williams) to build the soundtrack for a stark, unflinching record of his experience.

“Dead man’s shoes, double dare you to rock ‘em/ Slip ‘em on smooth, they gon’ fit no problem/ They always do/It’s like they were made for your two feet, kids laid out in the streets, no kicks, limbs askew/ That’s how they did my cousin in ‘86 auntie saw it on the news/ He had one on, one off, it was by the bare foot that she knew/ My wife said, ‘The baby feet look just like you’/ And I thought about that when they went to sleep, I cried too”

(Note: Mercy by Armand Hammer and The Alchemist was also an honorable mention for the TGS 50 Favorite Albums of 2025 list)

**I personally rate “Make No Mistake” as one of the best written verses of 2025. If I had the space to quote the entire song here I would. Instead, I trust you as the reader to listen and see for yourself.