Hiding Places
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Hiding Places
| type = studio
| artist = Billy Woods & Kenny Segal
| cover = Hiding Places.jpg|border=yes
| alt =
| released = {{Start date|2019|03|29}}
| recorded =
| studio =
| genre = Hip hop
| length = {{Duration|m=40|s=23}}
| label = Backwoodz Studioz
| producer = {{hlist|Kenny Segal|Mothermary|Blockhead}}
| chronology = Billy Woods
| prev_title = Known Unknowns
| prev_year = 2017
| next_title = Terror Management
| next_year = 2019
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Kenny Segal
| type = studio
| prev_title = Happy Little Trees
| prev_year = 2018
| title = Hiding Places
| year = 2019
| next_title = Back at the House
| next_year = 2019
}}
}}
Hiding Places is a collaborative studio album by Brooklyn rapper Billy Woods and Los Angeles record producer Kenny Segal.{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklynvegan.com/20-new-rap-songs-out-this-week/|title=20 New Rap Songs Out This Week|work=BrooklynVegan|first=Andrew|last=Sacher|date=March 29, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}} It was released by Backwoodz Studioz on March 29, 2019.{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/news/7-albums-out-today-you-should-listen-to-now-fennesz-quelle-chris-karyyn-and-more/|title=7 Albums Out Today You Should Listen to Now: Fennesz, Quelle Chris, K Á R Y Y N, and More|work=Pitchfork|first1=Madison|last1=Bloom|first2=Braudie|last2=Blais-Billie|date=March 29, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}} It features guest appearances from Mothermary, Elucid, and Self Jupiter.{{cite web|url=https://www.stereogum.com/2037665/billy-woods-kenny-segal-hiding-places/music/album-stream/|title=Stream billy woods & Kenny Segal's New Album Hiding Places|work=Stereogum|first=Tom|last=Breihan|date=March 29, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}} The album cover is a photograph of the William Livingstone House in Detroit.{{Cite web |title=billy woods and the virtue of hiding |url=https://www.thefader.com/2019/04/09/billy-woods-hiding-places-review |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=The FADER |language=en}}
Background and content
Kenny Segal produced Milo's 2015 album So the Flies Don't Come, which featured a guest appearance from Elucid. Elucid is one half of the duo Armand Hammer along with Billy Woods. Segal went on to provide beats to Armand Hammer's albums Rome and Paraffin. After that, Woods and Segal decided to create a collaborative album.{{Cite web |last=Chesman |first=Donna-Claire |date=March 26, 2019 |title=A Very Cathartic Conversation with billy woods |url=https://djbooth.net/features/2019-03-26-billy-woods-interview-hiding-places |access-date=June 7, 2023 |website=DJBooth}}
Woods has described the album's opening track, "Spongebob", as the first song on which he and Segal fully understood each other's visions for the album. The song was originally titled "Monotheism", but Woods retitled it after writing the chorus, which describes a situation as "underwater"—alluding to the term for an asset with negative equity.{{Cite web|url=https://jacobin.com/2025/02/billy-woods-rap-zimbabwe-colonialism |title=billy woods: "My Music Is Radical, in Its Own Way" |first=Armen |last=Aramyan |website=Jacobin |date=February 16, 2025 |access-date=February 27, 2025}}
Critical reception
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = The Fader
| rev1score = favorable{{cite web|url=https://www.thefader.com/2019/04/09/billy-woods-hiding-places-review|title=billy woods and the virtue of hiding|work=The Fader|first=Paul|last=Thompson|date=April 9, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}}
| rev2 = Pitchfork
| rev2score = 7.7/10{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/woods-segal-hiding-places/|title=woods + segal: Hiding Places|work=Pitchfork|first=Marcus J.|last=Moore|date=April 8, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}}
| rev3 = Stereogum
| rev3score = favorable{{cite web|url=https://www.stereogum.com/2039200/billy-woods-kenny-segal-hiding-places-review/franchises/status-aint-hood/|title=billy woods & Kenny Segal Made A Stressed-Out Rap Classic|work=Stereogum|first=Tom|last=Breihan|date=April 10, 2019|access-date=April 28, 2019}}
}}
Marcus J. Moore of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.7 out of 10, writing: "In a way, Hiding Places plays like a complement to early-00s underground New York rap, and sits alongside early Definitive Jux records." He added: "There's an edginess to the record, similar to Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein, a feeling that the rapper will either self-destruct or nuke everything in his wake." Tom Breihan of Stereogum wrote: "The album works as a sweaty, jangled rumination on stress and fear and hopelessness and grim acceptance." Paul Thompson of The Fader called it "[Billy Woods'] leanest and his best [record]".
=Accolades=
Track listing
{{Track listing
| title1 = Spongebob
| length1 = 3:52
| title2 = Steak Knives
| length2 = 1:28
| title3 = Checkpoints
| length3 = 3:13
| title4 = Spider Hole
| length4 = 3:40
| title5 = Houthi
| length5 = 2:44
| title6 = A Day in a Week in a Year
| note6 = featuring Mothermary
| length6 = 5:04
| title7 = Bedtime
| length7 = 2:15
| title8 = Crawlspace
| note8 = featuring Elucid
| length8 = 3:45
| title9 = Speak Gently
| note9 = featuring Self Jupiter
| length9 = 4:53
| title10 = Toothy
| length10 = 2:17
| title11 = Bigfakelaugh
| length11 = 3:48
| title12 = Red Dust
| length12 = 3:24
| total_length = 40:23
}}
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
{{Div col}}
- Billy Woods – vocals
- Kenny Segal – production, mixing
- Ryan Crosby – guitar (1, 4)
- Mothermary – vocals (6), additional production (6)
- Elucid – vocals (8)
- Blockhead – co-production (8)
- Self Jupiter – vocals (9)
- Steel Tipped Dove – engineering
- Willie Green – mastering
{{Div col end}}
References
{{Reflist}}