Show Review - billy woods and Kenny Segal w/ ShrapKnel at Fine Line

2024-12-02 Minneapolis, MN

NY Rappers leave a packed Fine Line crowd with no place to hide

billy woods keeps the lights low at his shows, allowing the music to speak for itself. To see woods perform is to witness a shadow spitting verse, arms outstretched in silhouette.

billy woods’ music has a stranglehold on me. He’s got one of the sharpest pens today, lyrics a masterful blend of political commentary, dissection of generational trauma and laconic lines that reveal intensely personal moments. If that all sounds a bit heavy, don’t worry - dude’s got jokes too. His verses are those of someone who has read the theory but lives in the real world. Sometimes the words left off of the page speak volumes (“the corner of your eye, the edge of the white / that’s where I live, I’m set for life”). But first things first, we’ve gotta talk about ShrapKnel.

ShrapKnel (NY hip hop heavyweights Curly Castro and PremRock) kicked off the night, pulling no punches. They tore through much of this year’s release “Nobody Planning To Leave”, the beats clanging and thumping beneath their feet. Curly Castro explained the Breaking Bad reference in “Bogdan Interlude”, joking that PremRock didn’t get it so he wasn’t on the track. PremRock fired right back and did a track sans Castro. The best moments saw the two working together, though, Curly Castro’s rugged relentless lines giving way to PremRock’s paradoxically smooth staccato. Later in the set, Curly Castro struck a pose and froze with his back to the audience while PremRock flowed, only re-animating when the verse came back to him. The b-boy antics could have come off as corny in the wrong hands, but the pair has clearly honed their live show every bit as much as their lyrics. They were thoroughly enjoying themselves on stage and they made sure to take the audience with. Toward the end of the set, PremRock shared a story about a disastrous set at Turf Club years ago. Seeing ShrapKnel this time around made me glad they gave the Twin Cities another shot. I’m sure as hell not missing them next time they come through.

Next up was Kenny Segal with a solo set. Hearing his beats on a PA was a joy - jazz samples teetered on the edges between nostalgia and decay and the bass rumbled like a collapsing monolith. This was my first time hearing Curious Expedition (Partial Recall). On the Armand Hammer record, this beat is a quick intro to “Total Recall”, almost a throwaway moment. But hearing the interlude stretched out, flutes blossoming from cracks in the cement, I was struck by Segal’s sampling prowess. It goes to show how much care goes into every little moment on his productions.

Finally billy woods joined Segal for the final set of the night. Early on, woods told the audience he’d been fighting a cold and warned us we were about to get the “Loch Ness” versions. But Loch Ness or no, woods’ performance could swim circles around most rappers today. He and Kenny Segal kept the energy high through a 20+ song set, arcing through the apocalyptic grime of 2019’s Hiding Places before switching it up to tracks from the duo’s more recent (and slightly sunnier if jetlagged) collaboration, Maps. Kenny treated the audience to extended intros of a lot of the tracks, showcasing bits of samples not heard on the albums. It felt like a little peek into the studio and it was a great way to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Hiding Places. Some lyrics saw new revisions too - “Spider Hole” had woods reflecting on new atrocities - “four million USD hoverin’ over the Gaza Strip it’s nuts”. Later in the night, ShrapKnel came back out for their verses on “Babylon by Bus” and of course they rocked it. The set was rounded out with a few tracks from elsewhere in woods’ prolific discography, along with a nod to MF DOOM tucked somewhere in the middle.

Up to the end of the show there were no signs of slowing down, even if the number of cups of tea woods’ tour mates brought out for him grew concerningly high. A line from set closer “Soft Landing” perfectly conveys how I felt by the end of the night - “head in the loud clouds, both feet on the fuckin’ pavement”. woods thanked the audience and sent us off into the night, one shadow to the next.