Born in Washington, DC, Billy Woods (stylized as billy woods) is a rapper b… Read Full Bio ↴Born in Washington, DC, Billy Woods (stylized as billy woods) is a rapper based out of New York City. He has also lived in Zimbabwe, Jamaica, and Maryland. Billy Woods is a member of the Super Chron Flight Brothers with Priviledge, Armand Hammer with Elucid, and The Reavers supergroup.

His mother was an English literature professor from Jamaica. His father was a Ph.D. Marxist writer, active in the Zimbabwe War of Liberation and then a member of the government in Zimbabwe. In 1980, the family moved to Zimbabwe. After the death of Woods' father, they returned to the United States in 1989. Woods briefly attended Howard University before getting involved in New York City's hip-hop scene. He started making music in the late 1990s. He wrote his "first real rhyme" at a laundromat in Kennebunk, Maine in 1997.

Billy Woods released his debut solo album, Camouflage, on his record label Backwoodz Studioz in 2003. In 2012, he released History Will Absolve Me. In 2013, he released Dour Candy, which was entirely produced by Blockhead. In 2017, he released Known Unknowns. It was included on Rolling Stone's "15 Great Albums You Probably Didn't Hear in 2017" list. In 2019, he released a collaborative album with producer Kenny Segal, titled Hiding Places, and a solo album, Terror Management. 2020 brought Brass, a collaborative album with Moor Mother. Woods released Aethiopes and Church in 2022. On May 5th 2023 Woods released Maps , second collaborative album with producer Kenny Segal.

Pump Up the Volume
Billy Woods Lyrics

If we don't win by the ballot
It's back to the bush
Build an African Death Star out of callouses
Children's swollen stomachs
Push into the Presidential Palace
Big cigars ablaze no need for the suitcase
We already dug the graves
And those pumps work like slaves (Chop chop)
So when we let the machetes coup de grace
200 million barrels a day was all we saw

One Monkey Don't Stop No Show (No way)
Back in business
See that pipeline? Now I control the flow
Let Switzerland hold the dough
Tel Aviv can grind anything we
Get out those mines
Get Washington on the satellite phone
Promise a price freeze
Guarantee the safety of Royal
Dutch Shell employees
Increase the Mobil/Exxon concession
And send our militias more weapons
Purge the unions, assassinate the students
But keep promising elections
I don't want to put on the
BBC and see anything about repression

We fly by in bullet proof Benzes
Gucci aviators with the mirrored lenses
Sippin' champagne in the Seychelles
Living like this, boy it do get expensive
We fly by in bullet proof Benzes
Gucci aviators with the mirrored lenses
Sippin' champagne in the Seychelles
Living like this, boy it do get expensive

The village stands in the midst
Of such rapacious pillage
We live with murky rivers and oil spillage
Around here it's never dark
We live in the sparks
Perpetual gas flares look like
Rustin' Olympic torches
Black Gold medalists on derrick platforms
Surrounded by armed forces
Last thing we need is another daughter
Don't drink the water
Don't breathe the air
Don't talk to any reporters' tape recorders
Special Forces the only ones with
Cold beer and fresh vegetables
Knocking late at night
Cold fear grips your testicles
They pushin' in asking for you, her and him
They got lots of questions about what
You were doing with them
And who told who what, when

We fly by in bullet proof Benzes
Gucci aviators with the mirrored lenses
Sippin' champagne in the Seychelles
Living like this, boy it do get expensive
We fly by in bullet proof Benzes
Gucci aviators with the mirrored lenses
Sippin' champagne in the Seychelles
Living like this, boy it do get expensive

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS