Billy Woods And Kenny Segal Album Maps

It was released through Backwoodz Studioz on May 5, 2023. The album was preceded by two singles: "FaceTime", which was released on April 12, 2023, and "Soft Landing", which was released on May 3, 2023. The album features guest appearances from Elucid, Danny Brown, Aesop Rock, Quelle Chris, ShrapKnel, Benjamin Booker, and Samuel T. Herring.

Maps
Studio album by Billy Woods and Kenny Segal
Released	May 5, 2023
Genre	Hip hop
Length	44:08
Label	Backwoodz Studioz
Producer	Kenny Segal
Billy Woods chronology
Church (2022) Maps (2023)
Kenny Segal chronology
Indoors (2021) Maps (2023)
Singles from Maps
"FaceTime" Released: April 12, 2023 "Soft Landing" Released: May 3, 2023

Maps is the second collaborative album between Woods and Segal, following 2019's Hiding Places. Woods recounts that the duo had not worked closely together between the recording of Hiding Places and Maps. Though the two artists always intended to release additional collaborations, Woods states that he and Segal chose to pursue separate artistic directions after the release of Hiding Places to ensure that their future projects would not feel like a retread of its material.

After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in North America and Europe, Woods undertook a crowded touring schedule, and his experiences with adjusting to this lifestyle after the pandemic informed the themes and recording process of Maps. Woods has estimated that he wrote "70 percent" of the album while traveling. Parts of the album were recorded in Los Angeles, including at studios belonging to Segal and fellow producer The Alchemist, but Woods states that the majority of the recording took place while he was on tour.

On March 27, 2023, Woods and Segal announced that Maps would be released on May 5 of that year; they also announced that the album's release would be followed by a tour of the United States and Europe throughout May and June. The album's lead single, "FaceTime", was released on April 12. The track features singer Samuel T. Herring, who had previously collaborated with Segal on the 2019 album Back at the House. Maps' second single, "Soft Landing", was released on May 3, 2023. "Soft Landing" has a music video, directed by actor Tim Blake Nelson and his son Henry Nelson; this pair also directed a music video for the Maps track "Babylon by Bus".

Maps is a concept album about Woods' experiences as a touring musician. The album has also been characterized as a "travelogue", focusing less on any specific destination and moreso on the experience of rapidly and repeatedly traveling from one unfamiliar location to another. Maps portrays travel as an experience that can often lead to indignities and alienation, but that is also capable of providing escape and adventure. Woods has compared the album's narrative to that of the hero's journey, and emphasizes that its arc concludes with a return home. In addition to the album's focus on travel, some critics have identified Maps as showcasing Woods' reaction to his increasingly prominent status in the underground hip hop scene. Other reviewers observed that Maps shows Woods departing from the "political and historical" subject matter that had characterized his 2022 albums, Aethiopes and Church.

The album cover, inspired by the design of airplane safety brochures, was illustrated by Ashes57. It has been described as "depict[ing] Woods' unique brand of airplane etiquette".

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	90/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Beats Per Minute	91%
HipHopDX	4.6/5
Pitchfork	8.9/10
Rolling Stone
Stereogum	Favorable
The Line of Best Fit	9/10

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Maps received an average score of 90 based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Woods' writing on Maps has attained particular praise; it has been described as "exquisite" and as placing him "into the ranks of rap's great stylists and storytellers". His lyrics have been described as "packed with detail" and "bring[ing] people and places to life with quick, visceral strokes". Paul Simpson of AllMusic characterizes the album as "one of Woods' most accessible and relatable efforts, containing some of his clearest, most vivid narratives". Though the album was regarded as showcasing Woods' characteristic sense of dread, it has also been widely viewed as more lighthearted than much of Woods' other work; a Rolling Stone interview notes that Woods also incorporates humor into some tracks. The album's songs have been widely described as "vignettes" due to their short run times and emphasis on sense of place. Woods has also been identified as making repeated references to golden age hip hop throughout his lyrics. A more mixed appraisal of Woods' writing came from Mosi Reeves of Rolling Stone, who found Maps to be less passionate than 2022's Aethiopes.

Segal's production on Maps was also received positively. The overall mood of the production has been described as reflecting Woods' "combination of comfort and anxiety"; it has also been regarded as "subdued" and "clean, expansive" production that allows Woods' lyrics to take the foreground. Other critics have described Segal's work on Maps as "globetrotting" and "jazzy", and noted that it featured "wilting sax lines and twinkling pianos" as major instruments. A HipHopDX review observed that the production juxtaposed "softly chiming guitars and flute samples" with "bracing drum patterns". Segal has been characterized as employing "clear melodies that invite the listener to lean in closer", but also as utilizing drum lines that "lurch sideways [rather than] falling into the old head-nod patterns". Segal's production was widely contrasted to that of Hiding Places, his previous collaboration with Woods; Maps has been regarded as showcasing a "less severe" and "less dissonant" style than its precursor.

Year-end lists

Credits adapted from Bandcamp and Apple Music.

Performance

Technical

• Kenny Segal – production, mixing, engineering
• Steel Tipped Dove – engineering
• Aesop Rock – additional engineering
• Willie Green – mastering