Control Freaq Records/Young
Erykah Badu & The Alchemist – Before the World Blows
Pre-order — Releases 11th December 2026.
Ships on, or as close as possible to, the release date.
Transparent Neon Orange Vinyl – Indies OnlyPickup available at 12 Bar Music and Social - Exeter
Usually ready in 5+ days
In the eleven years since her last project, Erykah Badu has gathered not conclusions but a series of existential insights.
Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment exists within the tension between introspection and growth. Abi is Badu. Alan is The Alchemist. Recorded over 18 months in Dallas and Los Angeles, the album is the inevitable collision of two iconoclasts — hypnotic, funny, blunt, deeply personal and impossible to categorise neatly.
Meditative and fluid, Before the World Blows finds Badu contemplating which parts of ourselves and our stories are worth protecting before the world breaks and fragments: love, innocence, dreams, memories and womanhood. The album unfolds in four movements, charting the progression of self through the prisms of love, art and identity, with passion blurring into desire and hope into grief.
The Abi and Alan Experiment began after Badu told longtime creative partner Cold Cris that she had always wanted to rap over Mobb Deep’s “The Realest”, an Alchemist production. Their conversations grew into a full collaborative project, with The Alchemist’s warm, sample-based architecture meeting Badu’s rhythmic, jazz-informed experimentation.
Working from Alchemist instrumentals, Badu deconstructed and sculpted the material into something distinctly her own, adding everything from soft kalimba notes to immersive chords and drums. The result moves fluidly between soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz and underground hip-hop without belonging entirely to any one of them. From 2024 to 2025, the pair road-tested the album live with Badu’s digital collective The Cannabinoids and The Alchemist on MPC, refining the tracks as they went.
For fans of: Erykah Badu · The Alchemist · D’Angelo · Madlib · Flying Lotus
Tracklist
Details
Format: Transparent Neon Orange Indies 2LP
Release Date: 11th December 2026
Barcode: 0889030051509
Catalogue No: YO515LPE / YO515LP
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