This collaboration between innovative emcee billy woods (one half of Armand Hammer) and avant-garde musician and spoken word poet Moor Mother is a bit unexpected but also makes perfect sense. Both are iconoclasts who twist words at will to craft challenging narratives that illuminate the past and present. Both are also clearly experimentalists, not afraid to push the boundaries of their respective crafts. This attraction to experimentation shines through on BRASS, a gem of an album that blazes new ground and welcomes in a collective of artists from the modern rap vanguard, including Navy Blue and Child Actor.
I’ll admit I don’t always know what the fuck they’re talking about, but part of the fun in listening to BRASS lies in trying to decipher Moor Mother and woods’ lyrics, which ride over a cohesive collection of meditative beats produced by some of modern raps best beatmakers including Alchemist and Preservation. BRASS definitely demands repeat listens and I’m sure this one will be in steady rotation for years to come.
