Billy Woods at WWW, November 7th 2022

 

The poignant anecdote of how the late Ronald McNair refused to leave a segregated library when he was child until a racist librarian called the cops that eventually allowed him to take the books home, is well known and kind of a social media fixture. It’s definitely a moving story all the more powerful due to who McNair ended up being. The second African-American astronaut, who died in the tragic 1986 Challenger explosion that took the lives of the entire crew; quite possibly the most diverse ever assembled until that point. The crew included two women, one Asian and one African American. One of the women was Christa McAuliffe, she was scheduled to be the first private citizen to travel to space. 

“Black astronaut, cop a space suit and jet off my steps
Challenger launch burning bright, burn to death
Burn in the firmament, charbroiled, catch the hair
Black boy burned crisp, pursed black lips
Black marionettes dance limp, over the pit
The kindly ones distant as the winter's sun
A mad woman whistling, you can hear it if you listen”

This is how Billy Woods, with his astonishing pen, paints a vivid picture of this tragic event in No Hard Feelings. His flow in crescendo, reaching a climatic point in the quoted last lines is essential. As well as the drone atmospheric soundscape provided by the production from Preservation. Like a true artist, Woods is not simply recreating but evoking, pointing towards the idea of this being one example of human sacrifice being justified in the name of progress and civilization. If you’re curious just search on Google the negligent role of NASA in this disaster. Gil Scott-Heron was right when he said that “a rat done bit my sister Nell but Whitey’s on the moon. 

Witnessing the intensity of this poetry live, delivered with focus and passion by his creator was a privilege. This was the second song of the set. Like in his 2022 album Aethiopes, it followed the opener Asylum. Woods was chatty, introduced lots of the songs from the setlist, gave some background information and announced a new collaboration with Kenny Segal, can’t wait for that one. He handled the laptop from which he cued the beats. He mentioned that they couldn’t afford a flight ticket for his DJ. There were no major issues. A couple of brief moments of silence while searching for the next tune due to the fact that he was on double duty, but nothing that could detract from the amazing show that this was.

We got cuts from the first Kenny Segal collaboration (Spongebob, Houthi). Songs from his Armand Hammer project with Elucid (Indian Summer, Falling Out The Sky and the closer The Eucharist). Also some from the latest album, a collaboration with Messiah Musik entitled Church. From this album we heard Paraquat, Artichoke and Pollo Rico. The latter was supposed to be the last song from the show. He was allotted a 50 minutes set, because believe it or not he was the opening act. 

The headliner was a quintet lead by bassist Sam Wilkes. I got to be frank, hard hitting this ensemble was not. The hour and forty five minutes this band was on stage felt longer than that. I think they’re going for a Pat Metheny Group type of vibe, with a vocalist and everything, but unlike Pat’s stuff, the melodies were not there and the grooves were not that groovy. Coming after Woods was a tough task. I did like the one song towards the end with Dylan Day on guitar playing some cool Tinariwen sounding licks. I think incorporating more global influences could work for this band.

Billy Woods was otherworldly, though. His delivery in concert added another dimension to the songs. The aforementioned Pollo Rico is incredibly accurate in capturing a sense of sadness and isolation (“A man apart, drink alone, packed bar”) along with some unabashed optimism (“I hope it's nothing but love in paradise”) remarked by the organ stabs and the epic and tranquil beat. I also liked how he humorously points to the culprit (“Ghost over Teddy Pendergrass if I see the devil moving fast”). With his music you get the sense that he’s speaking from a black perspective directly to a black audience. Couldn’t help it and got a bit misty-eyed while he performed this song. Honestly it felt transcendental.

It’s difficult to put into words, but there’s this thing he does in his songs when he matches big events like the Challenger explosion, for example, or the topic of soldiers coming from war in Pollo Rico, the African colonization, etc, with everyday situations. With meticulous precision and eloquence he finds parallels between historical injustices and everyday injustices. It’s in that common ground that history becomes like air, essential to our survival and our identity. In that community of shared struggles is where strength is found. McNair was on his way to become a leader on his field or, who knows, a leader in the country, but NASA didn’t postpone the launch. No hard feelings. In the same song the images of destruction dissolves to the smoke coming from a crack pipe (“That's that empty pipe hissing, that's him crying and twitching”). Another victim of the crack epidemic and disenfranchisement . Woods raps, (“It's thoughts that come back from the grave, again and again, grinning. It’s winning, it’s winning, it’s winning, it’s winning”).

His music embodies the black experience and transforms it into a sublime poetic expression. Like other amazing artists Woods had the gift of express humanity, the beauty and ugliness of it with ease, clarity and accuracy. He understands and denounces this privileged world where truck drivers of certain complexion can run multinationals while blacks with master degrees drive trucks. You didn’t need to look farther than the order of this evening’s bill to see my point. I hope we can see you again soon Billy Woods. I also hope that there’s nothing but love in paradise.  

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