Biography
billy woods is an American rapper based in New York City, born in Washington, D.C. around 1978. He uses a stage name and has not revealed his birth name.[1]
His mother was a Jamaican-born professor of English literature and his father a Zimbabwean Marxist intellectual. The family moved to Zimbabwe in 1980, and after his father died in the late 1980s, woods and his mother returned to Washington. He also spent time in Jamaica as a child.[1]
He was drawn to hip-hop by Do the Right Thing and Public Enemy, and began making music in the late 1990s. He founded the independent label Backwoodz Studioz in 2002, recorded for a time as part of Super Chron Flight Brothers, and since 2013 has worked as the duo Armand Hammer with Elucid.[1]
His 2022 album Aethiopes, produced by Preservation, explores Blackness, Africa and the diaspora, and draws on his mixed family background.[2]
References
- Billy Woods (Wikipedia) — Biography, family background, label and discography
- billy woods and Preservation on the cinematic chaos of Aethiopes (The Fader) — Interview about the making of Aethiopes and the song "Christine"