(Fielding questions?)

Ask him if he’s hopping in his production bag with any collabs this year. Loved to hear an artist on an Elucid tape

Yup

I probably missed the deadline. Just thought you could bring up the anniversary of Lumumba's assassination and what that means to him.

Someone please help me get into Milo, he seems exactly the type of rapper that would be up my alley. His vocabulary is really interesting to me i really love rappers who rhyme with super weird words, like mach and billy. But for some reason i just dont understand Milo, when i read his lyrics i do like it. still the meaning kind of goes over me i guess. ELUCID, billy and mach all have some simple lines with complex meaning in between complex lines with complex meaning. Milo just doesn't tone it down anytime, thats not his mistake it just that it becomes to much to digest in a listen. Anyone has a review or profile on him that would give me a perspective in him?

Milo (or R.A.P. Ferreira) takes way more influence from spoken word poetry—so that’s why his lyrics are sometimes so dense and indecipherable. I think we’d probably wear ourselves out trying to understand the “meaning” of every single one of his lyrics, but the ones you do capture will resonate for sure. A ton of his s*** goes over my head, but I enjoy the challenge of interpretation, just like with woods, Mach, Elucid, etc.

@Lit be curious to hear your take on this

I found this review of his latest, “Bob’s Son,” great for how deeply the reviewer went into the text of his lyrics, and how they connect to the theme of the album, and he offers a really good interpretation of his rapping style and ethos as an artist:

i wouldn't try to overanalyze every single of Rory's (Milo) lines, that's also too ambitious imo

for me his music is pretty relaxing and easy to listen to, especially his recent output which feels a little less heavy-headed than it did a few years ago - not to say that it's less dense lyrically

quite a few of his verses often strike me as loose streams of consciousness and there's no need for him to tone those down imo

let me know when the interview is out

BRASS is only getting crazier with those weeks passing

i need a big gyal dem, let me be the little spoon and
no white saviors, look what happened to the Cubans
reluctantly sold bud to my white neighbors when they moved in
yup that’s right, harbingers abound
locusts swarmin', you can't see the ground
the sun blotted out
the sound of plague rattlin' against the house

Hey guys i just wanted to discuss something with you'll.

I have a friend and she is into criticsl theory and literature, so obviously i recommended billy to her. She like hiding places but we were discussing the wake and the " 10 years ago she was just some hoe" came and she said it is kinda sad he uses that langauge. I understand the feminist critique of the language. Is rhis just wrong to use misogynist terms, listening to rap is juat knowing you hoing to get misogyny.

I tried to defend billy by saying he subverts the tropes of rappers f***ing other people's girls, like in houthi how he acknowledges the sin he commits. Still i want to hear from you guys what you think of the wole rappers woth socio political lyrics getting a pass for this type of stuff.

Isn't trying to police language pretty elitist in its own way?

The good music effect

I mean it’s no doubt that misogyny is engraved in the genre, so in one sense, it’s excusable (I personally don’t really give a s***). But it’s understandable your friend is apprehensive about it, because it can definitely be a barrier to those new to rap.

It’s true woods is a bit of an outlier when it comes to treatment of women in songs, but it also seems like he’s not above the occasional derogatory line.

On policing language, yeah—that s*** is dead af 99% of the time. One time @Zulaw said something to the extent of “your participation as a listener isn’t activism” and I think bout that a lot lol.

Not sure how much of a “pass” these “woke” rappers get tbh, because they simply aren’t subjected to the same scrutiny by fans as popular artists, like Cardi and Meg, for example. Roc Marciano is one of my favorite rappers, and he frequently uses the ‘f’ word, but I ignore it because I don’t hold rappers to any kind of Utopian standard of political correctness. That would be stupid of me. Elucid, on the other hand, is someone I consider a pro-feminist rapper, so if you’re tryna justify this socio-politically conscious sub-genre, I’d refer your friend to him.

Would love to hear @DwindlingSun , @beflygelt and others’ thoughts on this. This is thread worthy, but this is also KTT, so I feel like this discussion is best confined
here.

Half the smarts, but twice the heart
Look at the picture, eyes had a spark
Sputtering, at the bar mutterin'
Money comes and goes
Broke today, but tomorrow who knows?
Ten years ago she was just some hoe
Five years after that, I'm in love
And if you ask me today, I could give a f***
Go figure

This entire stanza is about change both materially and in terms of perspective. Ups and downs. It actually echos his signature refrain "you can't take it with you". There's a bitterness and despair to it as well. The fact that he places "she was just some hoe" in that transitory state means its not just a flat statement. It speaks more to "his" own personal growth and subsequent decay than the actual nature of the female subject. Billy is cynical and skeptical of pretty much everything. There is a paranoia at the heart of his work. An anxiety. A dread. It's very personalized, but who's to say if this isn't just a character sketch? Why even root it in his actual person?

If you mean why would he say "hoe", I can't speak to his feelings on censoring that stuff. Billy is an extremely private figure. He's not exactly in the position to be subjected to the standards of a role model. I think he's making music for adults. Drake doesn't have to say hoe to convey far more damaging stereotypes to a way more impressionable audience. I think that word, like any other, depends on the significance you lend it. Billy doesn't celebrate it, endorse it, or condone it. The person using it in that song is broken and miserable.

He just did an entire project with a female artist in Moor Mother. Backwoodz signed and put on a female artist in Fielded. I have no reason to think he harbors or displays misogyny.

"your participation as a listener isn’t activism" this is quite right to me as in it is not my place criticize a genre that im not a part of. But the question remains that does it make it above criticism?

billy Woods has had some lines that bother me - I think of Big fake laugh off of Hiding Places:

Social worker said, "Close your eyes

Tell me where you see yourself in five, then write it down

Come on guys, it's just a thought exercise"

She walked down the road, she had thick thighs

Big hips, ass kinda flat, but that's fine

Like... what is the purpose of that, as if just the existence of a woman merits that kind of cheap demeaning description which adds nothing to the content of the song. So it's definitely possible for clever or conscious rappers to say ignorant or problematic things and we shouldn't just assume they're on the right side all the time, they shouldn't be held to different standards.

However I don't think it's fair to hone in on a single word (barring obvious exceptions) like that and use it as a way to dismiss everything the rapper says. In that line you mention I think the focus is on the narrator himself - it's about his attitude and how that changes with time, how he's prone to automatically label the woman like that, his own tendency to get be cold and uncaring towards the outside world... Not the writer making an earnest characterisation of that woman or of any woman.

Yeah that line about the social worker was always kinda jarring to me too. Maybe that’s an observation that this implied speaker (woods in the past) would’ve made? Or maybe it’s just a minute detail he chose to throw in for whatever reason... either way, I agree that we shouldn’t hold the bar of correctness any higher or lower for any rappers. I definitely don’t feel like an arbiter or play moral judge when listening to rap.

That’s a great question. And I think you’re right that it would be unfair to judge the character of those whose life conditions/experiences you can’t empathize with, but yeah, you’re right in asking how are we as detached listeners supposed to reckon with lines like these? Like I implied in my previous post, I’m just tryna enjoy the music for what it’s worth, not play moral judge as a listener—that’s a hole not worth digging one’s self into.

Thats what she said as well, while also adding that nothing is going to change the phallogcentric world

I think it adds great context
1. The woman is a social worker so the character (woods) is in a position in which he has to interact with this person even if he may not be doing so willingly
2. It's made clear that the character does not want to interact with this social worker "come on guys, it's a thought exercise!" the people are obviously not enthused to be participating in this act
3.The character so unenthused by the actions he has to engage in with the social worker he pivots to daydreaming about her body, looks, and his level of attraction to her.

Seeing as many social workers work for the government I feel that woods is painting a picture of a person who has to engage with this social worker possibly by force (the gvt mandates the completion of work readiness programs for former inmates), has no direction or is losing direction so much so that when posed with the question of where he sees himself in five years he is more concerned with the attractiveness of the person asking the question then he is with his own future.