Posted by Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have revealed the full details of their highly anticipated joint album, titled ‘Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment’. Out this Friday via Young/Control Freaq Records, the co-produced project was recorded over 18 months between Dallas and Los Angeles. The result is a kaleidoscopic collision of two radical figures in music.
The Alchemist sent Erykah Badu a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, embellishing his warm, punchy samples with instruments from soft kalimba notes to immersive chords and drums. Across 16 tracks, Badu contemplates which parts of ourselves and our stories — love, innocence, dreams, memories, womanhood — are worth protecting before the world breaks and fragments.
Fluid and freeform, the album moves between soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz, and underground hip-hop. The narrative arc unfolds in four movements, charting the progression of self through the prisms of love, art, and identity, inviting us to sit with difficult feelings. The album features DJ Creole Princess, Westside Gunn, Joi, DRAM, Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kamasi Washington.
In the run-up to the album reveal, the duo shared the single ‘Witch Doctor’, and cryptic posters began appearing across major global cities bearing the phrase “One More Song…”. Today, the mystery deepens with the launch of the BADU BURNER PHONE, where fans can visit www.b-t-w-b.com to enter an interactive experience for a chance to speak with Badu directly.
Tracklist:
1. Echos
2. I Just Play A Part
3. Crossfade (feat. DJ Creole Princess, Westside Gunn, Joi)
4. Witch Doctor
5. Valentine (feat. DRAM)
6. Next 2 U
7. Love Me Not
8. Breezy
9. Abracadabra
10. To The Moon (Plan C) (feat. Steve Lacy)
11. They Ain’t You (feat. Thundercat)
12. What The People Say (Apostle 1)
13. Hot BiBi (Apostle 2)
14. No I.D. (feat. Westside Gunn)
15. I Know That Man (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)
16. Black Box (feat. Kamasi Washington)
Photo Credit: Adraint Bereal