Biography
billy woods & Kenny Segal are a rapper and producer duo pairing the Brooklyn-based billy woods with the Los Angeles producer Kenny Segal. Their first full album together, Hiding Places, came out on Backwoodz Studioz on March 29, 2019.[1]
Segal had produced Milo's 2015 album So the Flies Don't Come and later made beats for Armand Hammer, woods' duo with Elucid, before the two decided to make a record of their own. woods has described Segal first visiting his East Williamsburg apartment to play him beats.[1][2]
Segal's production leans toward dreamy downtempo, with jazz and post-rock touches.[3] The pair followed Hiding Places with the touring-themed Maps in May 2023.[4]
By 2019 woods had released five solo albums in seven years, alongside four records with Elucid as Armand Hammer, and he is known for avoiding showing his face in press photos and videos.[5] He has been described as the son of a Zimbabwean revolutionary and a college professor, and Hiding Places was received as a creative peak, placing on 2019 year-end lists at NPR, Stereogum, Time and Vice.[6][1]
References
- Hiding Places (Wikipedia) — Background on the collaboration and credits
- Underground Rap Hero Billy Woods on Coming Full Circle (Rolling Stone) — How woods and Segal first connected
- Billy Woods & Kenny Segal, Hiding Places (Scratched Vinyl) — Segal's downtempo, jazz and post-rock influenced style
- Maps (Billy Woods and Kenny Segal album) (Wikipedia) — Second collaboration, released May 2023 on Backwoodz Studioz
- billy woods and the virtue of hiding (The Fader) — Output rate and press-photo anonymity
- They Gave the Shadows Names (Passion of the Weiss) — Family background and the album as creative peak