Photo by B.A. Stubbs

We as listeners fantasize touring life to be something of a vacation. The destinations it brings our favorite artists seem like they would be that, but the realities – especially for every artist who isn’t cushioned by an extremely comfortable living doing what it is that puts food on their table – are more like a gradual drain on the brain and the body. billy woods, New York City underground’s finest flow finesser of an immaculate skill level, has become one of this decade’s most enthralling narrators of life from every angle, and he sketches it all out on “Facetime”, the first preview from he and producer Kenny Segal’s forthcoming second collaborative album, Maps. The miasma of touring is focalized in its bars and soundscape, a necessary juxtaposition of disorientating play-by-plays of a day in the life. Segal’s beats create a blanket of blinkering light that refracts off woods’ dizzy of senses. “The room smelled like Marrakesh / Dubstep drift in the window,” he raps. “They was goin’ off during Playboi Carti set / Now they in the halls partyin’ / Checkin’ they phones, bass shake the walls / I’m smokin’ alone in a cardigan / Thinkin’ of home.” Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring puts the perspective even more into frame in its hook. “Nothin’ out in Texas feels like weeks on the road / Pissin’ Mississippi, stopped in New Mexico / I ain’t seen my folks / And strangely I feel right at home on my own.” It’s a grind trying to live in the moment doing what you love, but you’re mostly out their on your own, making those missed calls hit you in the head even harder.

billy woods & Kenny Segal’s Maps will be released May 5th on Backwoodz Studioz.