[Pre Order] Erykah Badu & The Alchemist - Before The World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment - Orange LP *

Release Date: December 11, 2026

Indie retail exclusive 2LP on orange vinyl — Erykah Badu's first project in eleven years, made with The Alchemist.

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, it is the collision of two iconoclasts — hypnotic, funny, blunt and deeply personal. The album unfolds in four movements, charting the progression of self through the prisms of love, art and identity.

Alchemist sent Badu a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, looping his warm, punchy samples with instruments from soft kalimba notes to immersive chords and drums. The result moves fluidly between soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz and underground hip-hop, yet belongs entirely to none of them. From 2024 to 2025 the pair road-tested the whole album live in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu's digital collective The Cannabinoids, and Alchemist on the MPC.

Features

• Orange vinyl
• Indie retail exclusive
• 2LP
• Label: Young

Track Listing

The side-by-side split for this edition has not yet been published; the album sequence is:

1. Echos
2. I Just Play a Part (feat. DJ Creole Princess, Westside Gunn, Joi)
3. Crossfade
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)