billy woods, Kenny Segal, and more at Baby’s All Right
On Thursday, June 1, 2023, billy woods and Kenny Segal celebrated the release of their joint album, Maps, with a sold out record release show at Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Joining the duo on the Maps world tour for a joint opening set were other acts from woods’ Backwoodz Studioz universe: Duncecap, ShrapKnel (Curly Castro and PremRock), SKECH185, AKAI SOLO, and Fatboi Sharif. Before and after the Backwoodz roster took the stage, DJ Mo Niklz spun songs for the audience starting at 7PM. Each rapper only performed a handful of tracks before the next act appeared to perform their material.
I’ve seen billy woods perform around NYC many times over the years, including with other acts also on this show’s bill, and I agree with writer Dylan Green’s assessment that it was both bizarre and beautiful to be in a room with so many people shouting woods’ lyrics with him; some of the audience members included producers Willie Green and Blockhead, two members of Algiers (woods made a guest appearance at their National Sawdust show back in December), Samurai Banana and more. By the way, you can check out his fantastic piece on billy woods & Backwoodz Studioz for Pitchfork here.
When this show was announced, I knew I had to buy a ticket because I knew it will be the smallest room I’ll see him perform live in (last summer, he headlined the rooftop at Elsewhere plus performed at Knockdown Center, and the summer before that, the Backwoodz gang took over the stage in Central Park with The Alchemist); Baby’s All Right’s capacity is 280 people per their website. woods & Segal’s set relied heavily on their joint album, Maps, while also performing cuts from their prior joint album, Hidden Places (“Spongebob”), as well as Fielded joining the duo to sing “Western Education is Forbidden” from woods’ Terror Management. We also got to hear “No Hard Feelings,” from last year’s excellent Aethiopes, and “Paraquat,” a song from his wonderful record, Church, that was also incredibly released in 2022.
Before the show ended, billy woods announced that his label will be releasing new music from Elucid, Fielded, Armand Hammer, and others. Although I’m certain Maps will make many album of the year lists, it appears that he won’t be taking a break anytime soon.