For rapper Billy Woods, horror is reality (and reality is horror) -

Golliwog

Billy Woods (Backwoodz Studios, 2025)

Billy Woods (not his real name) has spent the better part of a decade establishing himself as underground hip-hop’s resident man of mystery. Reaching all the way back to 2012’s History Will Absolve Me, Woods’ almost spoken-word lyrics have toed the line between deeply personal and aggressively arcane. It’s only natural that such an artist (whose real name, again, has never been publicly established) would never show his face on camera.

On his latest release, Woods amps up the mysterious and ominous even further, delivering an album that delves into all the horrifying things that lurk just off society’s proverbial camera. Golliwog—named for the racist caricature dolls popular in the first half of the 20th century—can be best described as an unnerving listen. At times it’s almost cartoonishly scary, with its references to zombies, voodoo dolls, and similar horror staples, but these almost always make way for the far more real horrors that we use these fictional ones to escape from. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than on the track “Waterproof Mascara,” which features Woods telling the story of his father’s sudden death over a beat composed of a woman’s rhythmic sobs and tears.

Also a standout is “Corinthians,” written from a pit of despair and doubt that we might ever be saved—or even spared—from seemingly omnipresent misery. It’s a hip-hop dark night of the soul. As guest rapper Despot puts it: “When I finally meet my maker, I’ll have something up my sleeve / And I’ll find out if the god above me bleeds the same as me / ’Cause I’m tired of calling out for him and falling on my knees.”

Golliwog has frequently been cast as a “horrorcore” album. It’s a fitting categorization, but not because of the spooky film samples: The realities the album unveils, ones that the poor and oppressed face daily, are far more terrifying.