billy woods released his excellent new album Preservation-produced Aethiopes last month, and now he has announced a tour supporting the album for this fall, including stops in DC, Philly, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, and more. All dates are listed below.
Before that tour happens, woods plays a NYC release show at Elsewhere Rooftop on June 29, and that one's with Aethiopes producer Preservation, as well as Contour. He also plays Austin festival Oblivion Access today (5/13), Pickathon, and Le Guess Who?
Meanwhile, Armand Hammer (aka billy woods + ELUCID) are also on tour now with Injury Reserve and AKAI SOLO, including an upcoming NYC show on May 20 at Warsaw.
In our review of Aethiopes, we said:
In the past two years, billy woods released two of the most highly acclaimed underground rap albums in recent memory with Armand Hammer (his duo with ELUCID), as well as a collaborative album with Moor Mother, but he hasn't released a solo album since 2019's Hiding Places and Terror Management. That changes today, with Aethiopes. Like Hiding Places, the new album was entirely helmed by a single producer, this time Preservation, who's best known as one half of Dr. Yen Lo with Ka and as a longtime Mos Def collaborator. woods and Pres have worked together before -- including on Terror Management -- and they prove to have a ton of chemistry for the length of this entire album. As stunning as the last two Armand Hammer albums are, that project tends to have a little more of an abstract haze than woods' solo material, and Aethiopes finds woods delivering his most direct, fired-up bars since Hiding Places, with punchlines that pop out at you and stick in your head right away. He's also roped in some truly great guest verses, including from El-P, Boldy James, Quelle Chris, Despot, Fatboi Sharif, Denmark Vessey, his Armand Hammer partner ELUCID, and more, and the variety of different style rappers keeps the momentum of this album going. It's a lean 13 songs that always leaves you wanting more, and it gets better every time.
Stream the LP here:
billy woods -- 2022 Tour Dates May 13 - Austin - Oblivion Access^ June 11 - Columbia MO - Cafe Berlin June 29 - Brooklyn - Elsewhere Rooftop* August 4-7 - Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon October 1 - Washington D.C. - DC9 October 6 - Philadelphia - Johnny Brenda's October 7 - Easthampton - Daily Operation October 8 - Boston - Crystal Ballroom October 9 - Montreal - Barre Le Ritz October 10 - Toronto - Horseshoe Tavern October 13 - Detroit - The Magic Bag October 14 - Madison - UW Madison October 15 - Chicago - Sleeping Village October 16 - Cleveland - Mahall's October 17 - Columbus - Rumba Cafe November 10-13 - Utrecht - Le Guess Who?
^ w/ Danny Brown, Ho99o9, Soul Glo, N8NOFACE, Fat Tony, Plack Blague * w/ Preservation and Contour
