Enigmatic; ahead of his time; unpredictable: these are just a few of the infinite possible descriptors for billy woods – a storied and renowned rapper from the New York hip hop scene. Across the 2000s, woods’s output was predominantly with the duo Super Chron Flight Brothers. Upon their splitting up in early 2010s, woods decided to create one final release before retiring from music. Intended to be his last, History Will Absolve Me (2012) – with its experimental edge and cutting political criticism – became a cult classic of underground hip hop and single-handedly revitalised woods’s career. In the years since, woods has continued to push boundaries, both solo and as part of Armand Hammer, whose last release We Buy Diabetic Test Strips (2023) featured guest appearances by artists such as JPEGMafia, Moor Mother, and El-P. The son of a Zimbabwean Marxist writer and a Jamaican literature professor, it is not by chance that woods’s music is imbued with a decolonial and political spirit – matched with his immaculate, deliberate flow, this combination leads to a rare and singular kind of talent. He will perform music from his forthcoming album at the festival.