billy woods

If you were looking for the exact opposite of a phrase like “Live Laugh Love,” it would be, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Released 10 and a half years ago, Earl Sweatshirt’s melancholic sophomore album title is the anti-Annie — a bleakly abrupt way of saying, the sun won’t come out tomorrow, and even if it does, I’ll be too busy brooding and watching The Wire Season 4 to notice. The tracks themselves are similarly dire, with singles like “Grief” sounding like a bottomless pit where you can barely hear yourself scream. His latest LP, Live Laugh Love, is the sound of someone who’s long since found the resolve — and the wisdom — to climb out of it.

On her ambitious new double LP Cuntry, Brooklyn’s Cleo Reed merges the seemingly disparate musical traditions of Southern folk and electronic hip-hop into a singular statement of purpose. The self-produced 14-track collection, due out four weeks from now, is billed as an exploration of “the emotional and physical weight of labor in America,” and its contributors list includes billy woods, Nick Hakim, Elliott Skinner, Momo Boyd of Infinity Song, Isa Reyes, Matthew Jamal, Annahstasia, and more.