‘The Queen of Neo Soul’ teams up with The Alchemist, finally releasing ‘Before the World Blows’ after months of speculation

Written by Harry Sargeant

Since 2015’s mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone, fans of neo-soul legend Erykah Badu have been feeding off breadcrumbs, settling for infrequent guest appearances with artists such as Robert Glasper and Jamie xx. As far as a new full-length release is concerned, it’s been a long, highly anticipated wait, with rumours bubbling that ‘The Queen of Neo Soul’ would break her 11-year hiatus to team up with illustrious hip- hop producer Alan Daniel Maman, better known as The Alchemist. With Badu’s most appreciated works, such as Baduizm (1997) and Mama’s Gun (2000), having boasted co-production credits from J Dilla, Questlove and James Poyser, her work has always featured true hip-hop royalty. Teaming up with The Alchemist continues that tradition with the new release Before the World Blows. Badu herself made it clear that this is not a vocalist-and-producer album. She wanted to stress that she was hands-on throughout the process of creating the album, from inception to mixing. While the initial beats were provided by The Alchemist, Badu added her own live instrumentation and sonic choices that more than earned her the title of executive producer on the project.

As we have established, Badu has no problem taking a prolonged time out of the spotlight, not seeing the merit in releasing music for the sake of it. Badu only makes an album when she “has something to say”. On the flip side, in terms of pure musical output, not many can come close to The Alchemist, with this being his fifth release of 2026 already. Frequent, high-profile collaborative releases are Al’s wheelhouse, having teamed up with the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and Freddie Gibbs to release acclaimed projects in recent years. An excursion into working with R&B royalty is a step away from what we are used to hearing from Al, but with both artists having a history of seamlessly blending sounds of hip-hop, soul, jazz, R&B and psychedelic experimentation, on paper it’s a match made in heaven. Before the World Blows acts as a continuation of The Alchemist’s productive spell and a much-welcomed return to glory for Badu, where the smoothness of her signature neo-soul sounds blends seamlessly with Al’s nocturnal boom-bap production. 

The seven-minute opener, ‘Echos’, serves as both a nostalgic callback to previous sounds and a sign of the new direction. The off-kilter drum patterns give ‘Echos’ a loose and unquantised feel reminiscent of Badu’s ‘Soulquarian’ counterpart and frequent collaborator J Dilla, but through the lens of the modern minimalism of The Alchemist’s drums, which serve as a gentle cushion for Badu’s vocals to shine. Badu and Al’s collaborative world-building gives us an atmospheric, eerie opener that patiently builds rather than acting as a real kickstarter to the album. 

For me, the album kicks off emphatically with the enchanting ‘I Just Play A Part’ featuring DJ Creole Princess and Westside Gunn. Badu’s rhythmically repetitive and hypnotic vocals work extremely well over Al’s signature grimy boom-bap production. This is The Alchemist’s signature MPC-driven sound, chopping up frantic horns and erratic woodwind samples from Teo Macero’s ‘Round Trip’ to create the hard-hitting backbone for the track. A high point of this track is the stripped-back, glitchy beat switch, which provides an unexpected but welcome twist, featuring a short but stellar appearance from DJ Creole Princess. 

On the release of the album tracklist, I must say that, as far as the features go, the one I was most intrigued by was the inclusion of rapper Westside Gunn. To anyone who wasn’t aware of Westside Gunn’s work and unmistakable track presence, they would have been introduced abruptly on ‘I Just Play A Part’ with an influx of his signature gun-noise ad-libs. Unfortunately, on this track, the Buffalo rapper’s highly anticipated feature acts more as a DJ Drama-style hype man and ad-lib aficionado than a guest rap verse, which, for me, feels like a wasted opportunity on a beat this strong. We do hear  from Gunn again on this record on the psychedelic ‘No I.D.’, which sees him and Badu have a back-and-forth verse, almost interrupting one another and showing phenomenal on-track chemistry. ‘Crossfade’ is The Alchemist really playing to his strengths, with a luscious, jazz- sample-driven beat. For me, the star of the song is the bass playing provided by Thundercat. One of the best moments on the entire project is the final two minutes of ‘Crossfade’, where it’s stripped down to bass and vocals. Thundercat unleashes his inner Jaco Pastorius, playing gorgeous natural harmonic parts and closing the song with the sort of extremely busy yet tasteful bass playing that very few possess the ability to pull off quite like Thundercat. He also provides his trademark layered background vocals on ‘They Ain’t You’, which work well as a foundation for Badu’s earnest and vulnerable confessions of affection. 

‘Witch Doctor’ was the single for the album and certainly one of the strongest songs on the LP. Badu’s music has often spotlighted an exploration of her own ancestral spirituality, and this track does just that. I absolutely love the implementation of traditional African drum rhythms, adding a layer of surprise beneath the dry boom- bap drums in the mix. 

During the album release cycle, Erykah expressed her love for rapper and singer DRAM, stating, “If George Clinton, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and D’Angelo had a baby, that’s DRAM”. The highest praise I can give DRAM is that, on his appearance on ‘Valentine’, he approaches his verse with a swagger reminiscent of a young D’Angelo. Perhaps the most earwormy addition to the album comes from the bouncy ‘Breezy’, which has become a standout for many critics. ‘Breezy’ stands out as a charming bright spot on an album that is largely quite dark and gritty in sound. The playful, bluesy piano licks and Erykah’s brilliantly crafted hook make this the most radio- friendly song on the record without sacrificing quality or artistic integrity to achieve this. 

The Alchemist teams up with frequent and close collaborator Earl Sweatshirt for ‘I Know That Man’. This is a song that feels the most familiar and least sonically daring on the album; however, that’s not to say it isn’t a worthwhile addition to the project. The combination of Earl delivering his verses in a comatose state over Al’s chopped-up soul is a formula we have seen work time and time again, and it reminded me of some of the sounds from the duo’s Voir Dire album from 2023. 

The closing track on the album, ‘Black Box’, features celebrated jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington. Badu delivers a spoken-word performance over a Miles Davis- esque instrumental as she provides a commentary on mobile phones and dopamine addiction, comparing cell phones to “crack rocks”. Kamasi Washington’s haunting horns and ad-libs provide a sense of musical prosody to the track; his unnerving sax parts further reinforce the alarming sentiment of the song. For me, ‘Black Box’ sums Badu up as an artist: eccentric and uniquely true to the artistic freedom and expression she has always exhibited at every stage of her illustrious career. 

Before the World Blows is a great return to the spotlight for Erykah Badu and makes me excited to see where she might go next. As someone who has listened to most of The Alchemist’s output over the past 10 years, I couldn’t help but feel like, at times, the production was a bit formulaic, with beat selections that felt like something we’d heard before. Then again, when the formula is that effective and the beat and sample selection are at that high a level, it is hard for the outcome not to be a fantastic album like this once you sprinkle Erykah’s production and virtuosic musical instinct on top.