billy woods "Headband" -2012

(March 7, 2012 – Brooklyn, NY) Washington, D.C., rapper billy woods is excited to announce the release of his latest album, History Will Absolve Me. The album will be released April 10th via Backwoodz Studioz, and to celebrate the announcement billy is releasing a video for non-album single "Headband."

History Will Absolve Me is woods' first solo release in eight years, and the latest in a career that has seen him serve as part of the group The Reavers, alongside Akir, Karniege, Vordul Mega, Hasan Salaam, and others, and form the duo Super Chron Flight Brothers with fellow emcee Priviledge. Despite the long wait between projects, with his new album woods continues his penchant for reaching – and breaching – hip-hop's outer limits, a knack that has drawn him favorable comparisons to acts like Shabazz Palaces, MF DOOM, and Cannibal Ox, with whom a past collaboration served as billy woods' introduction to the rap game.

"I decided I wanted to do some shit that would be wholly uncompromising," says billy, explaining how the break-up of the Super Chron Flight Brothers affected his approach to this album. "Fuck biting my tongue, or not saying something because people might not get it. I don't want to die or quit without making some sort of final statement I can stand behind 100 percent." The title of the album draws on those sentiments, pulling from a Fidel Castro speech that deals with defeat and vindication, while simultaneously acknowledging that "history" rarely absolves anyone.

Musically, that brash attitude and uncalculated uncertainty permeates throughout History Will Absolve Me, and, given the personal nature of the album, billy was careful in choosing his collaborators. "I wanted to work with artists who could relate to where this album's head is at," he notes, referring to featured artists Roc Marciano, Elucid, and others, along with producers such as Willie Green, Marmaduke, and more. "We've been in this a while – we've been around the block – and we got the scars to show it."

In celebration of this announcement, billy woods is also releasing a video for "Headband," a track that actually won't appear on the album. The video, produced by Essex Dogs and shot and edited by billy, himself, chronicles a frenzied layover in Amsterdam using a first-person perspective that gives the video a unique feel, as woods paints the town red, gold and green. "The song was already linked with weed in my mind," explains woods, "I was going to Amsterdam - I've been a few times - and thought, let me shoot a bunch of first-person footage and try to match the stream-of-consciousness pace of this song."