On June 25 in Asheville, Billy Woods stepped onto the Eulogy stage with just a mic in hand and his backing tracks cued up on a laptop. It’s the kind of stripped-down setup that can easily expose cracks in a lesser performer. Instead, it placed a brighter spotlight on the fiercely original Brooklyn MC — who had packed the South Slope venue with fans expecting something special.

For years, Woods toiled in obscurity — playing to near-empty rooms, hustling for radio spins, and getting brushed aside by record stores. That long grind may have humbled him, but it also gave him the space to hone his craft and carve out a voice unlike anyone else.

He started gaining traction with 2012’s History Will Absolve Me and 2013’s Dour Candy, but remained mostly underground until 2019’s Hiding Places, his collaborative album with producer Kenny Segal, began drawing broader critical attention. Since 2020, Woods has been on an astonishing creative run — releasing Brass, Aethiopes, Church, Maps, and GOLLIWOG, alongside three Armand Hammer (his duo with ELUCID) projects: Shrines, Haram, and We Buy Diabetic Test Strips. Despite the remarkable pace, each record feels fully realized — albums that critics and peers routinely rank among the best hip-hop has offered this century.

At Eulogy, Woods tore through a career-spanning set built around GOLLIWOG. New tracks like “Misery” and “Pitchforks & Halos” already felt like canon, slotted seamlessly alongside fan favorites like Aethiopes standout “No Hard Feelings” and Hiding Places’ “Spongebob.” At one point, Woods noted that many older cuts fit thematically with his latest material — a nod to the deep continuity in his work.

In an email exchange with Asheville Stages ahead of the show, Woods spoke about the album’s structure and intent.

“I didn’t really focus on structure on this album in the way that I did with records like Today, I Wrote Nothing, or Known Unknowns. On those albums, the song structure was a key part of the methodology. Here I was just trying to tell these stories, and my creative focus was on a cohesive atmosphere and narrative trajectory.“

Against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic soundscapes from some of underground hip-hop’s most respected producers, the MC casts dense vignettes with abstract references to history, horror films, and colonialism — following the long narrative tradition of utilizing horror as a vehicle to explore trauma.

That atmosphere — thick with dread, memory, and abstraction — comes alive over post-apocalyptic soundscapes from some of underground hip-hop’s most respected producers. Throughout GOLLIWOG, Woods draws from the horror tradition not for shock, but as a lens for trauma, both personal and collective.

“I think that is a lot of what great horror and sci-fi stuff is about anyway. That said, personal and cultural trauma are also things that kind of come with the territory in a decent amount of my work. In fact, there are songs in my catalog like “Bedtime,” “Christine,” “Dead Birds,” or “Pompeii,” which easily could have been on GOLLIWOG, in terms of both content and sound.”

Live, it was impossible not to be mesmerized by the ceaseless strings of memorable lines, delivered in his unique blunt-force flow. No one can weave a Dune reference into a critique of post-colonial African “zombie states” quite like he does on “BLK ZMBY”:

“You already know that chauffeur gold Mercedes is a go / Bitter harvest, whether House Atreides or Harkonnens, that oil gotta flow / Zombies go home to platters of prawn and escargot.”

Asked whether his writing leans more on a stockpile of fragments or instinct, Woods replied:

“Definitely the latter. I go where the song takes me. That said, I do keep a notebook and sometimes a word or a phrase will get jotted down and find its way into my work eventually. I think it’s more likely that those end up as titles than anything. GOLLIWOG was one of those, as well as the song title ‘Waterproof Mascara.’”

Throughout his discography, the MC has collaborated with a number of notable producers, including Blockhead, Kenny Segal, and Messiah Musik. Woods’ offered some insights to how his process shifts depending on who’s behind the boards.

“Kenny usually is really making [beats] in a bespoke fashion, so you might have to wait a while to get more. There is a give and take where Kenny sends a couple beats, then I send some finished songs and then he absorbs them and makes new beats that he thinks fit where I am going. With Kenny, I am more likely to take a swing on a beat that I didn’t love at first pass, because it’s what is there. But some of those went on to become some of my best songs. I am thinking about stuff like “Houthi,” “Speak Gently,” “Soundcheck” — I would not have picked those out of a pack of 25 beats, but thank god I made them.

Blockhead is always working on beats, so he always has a bunch of work stacked up to pull from. So that’s what he does — he is going to comb through his beats and you get a lot of stuff at once, but the file he sends you is less about it being a finished arrangement than it is about just showing all the various parts of the beat and the progressions. Everything is highly malleable. Drop the violin and bring the chimes in later? No problem, he will shoot it back to you in no time. It’s really easy to dial everything in exactly how you want it and have the beat conform to your vision rather than have to conform to a beat.

Messiah Musik sends you a beat, 90% of the time, that’s the beat. Period. But he also has a knack for making stuff that is so inspiring to write to. I genuinely feel like I could lock in with Messiah and make a great album faster than with anyone else — no question about it. With him, the vibrations are always on that level where the pen damn near moves on its own.”

Opening the night was Backwoodz Studioz labelmate PremRock, whose new album Did You Enjoy Your Time Here…? is among 2024’s strongest underground releases. The project features a guest verse from Woods, but when asked if he might join PremRock for a live rendition of “Receipts,” Woods offered a characteristically candid response:

“I know he will probably pull “Receipts” out — no pun intended — but I can’t promise anything on my end. I just haven’t had an opportunity to really focus on memorizing that song when I am still dialing in a new set with this GOLLIWOG record.”

With a discography as deep and lyrically dense as his, it’s just impressive that he’s able to flawlessly deliver a full set of material each night. Asked about his approach to remembering and reconnecting with those words for live performances, Woods kept it simple:

“Rehearsal. Listening to the songs again and rehearsing them. Even if I think a verse might stay with me because it is poignant or very personal, in practice, it doesn’t work that way for me. It’s all about repetition.”

PremRock did indeed pull out “Receipts” — solo — and much like his fellow Brooklyn MC, the Philly-native held his own without the need for stage production, guests, or anything beyond pre-recorded beats. On stage, his joy for performing was as evident as his deft lyricism. Songs were introduced with shoutouts to the producers, which eluded a genuine fanboy energy and reverence for his collaborators. With his combination of fluid delivery and charismatic presence, the MC had no trouble commanding full attention from the crowd. And when he closed with the album’s title track, the positive response provided the answer to the question at hand.

Underground hip-hop acts don’t pass through Asheville nearly enough, and when they do, it’s never a given that the turnout will justify a return trip. But with Eulogy packed with heads hanging on every word, there’s no question that the audience for it exists here. Both Woods and PremRock seemed in good spirits — perhaps buoyed in part by Zohran Mamdani’s recent NYC mayoral primary win, which earned a shoutout from the opener.

With any luck, this show was enough to bring both MCs back — and maybe even convince their peers to make the trip. Asheville’s hip-hop scene deserves more nights like this.

(Photos by Jonny Leather)