SAMPLEDBlockhead's The Aux is the Backwoodz posse album, disguised as a producer record
The veteran producer's first rap album since Garbology put him in the matchmaker seat — and doubled as a roster showcase for the label.
The Aux arrived on November 17, 2023, and Backwoodz described it at the time as an exclamation point on a very big year for the label. It was also Blockhead's first rap album since Garbology, his 2021 project with Aesop Rock.
The matchmaker approach
Instead of building a record around one voice, Blockhead used the producer-album format the way it was meant to work: pairing rappers he admires with beats built for them, and occasionally putting people on the same song who had never shared one. The result reads as a survey of where independent rap was standing that year — and, not incidentally, a good entry point into the Backwoodz roster if you are starting from zero.
Blockhead's lane
He came up scoring Aesop Rock records, and the signature never left: warm, sample-heavy, slightly melancholy loops with drums that swing instead of stomp. On The Aux that consistency is the feature. The voices change every three minutes; the room stays the same.
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The other producer-anchored records in the catalog — Kenny Segal's work with billy woods, Preservation's Aethiopes — approach the same idea from different angles.
Details and formats are on the release page (opens in a new tab).