Erykah Badu has announced a new collaborative album titled Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment, created in partnership with underground producer the Alchemist, marking her first full-length project since the release of a mixtape in 2015. The record features dense, layered production described as drawing influence from her New Amerykah albums released in 2008 and 2010.
The collaboration emerged after the Alchemist, whose real name is Alan Maman, mentioned to a mutual acquaintance that working with Badu was a longtime ambition. Maman had been a fan since the 1990s, when he worked as a roadie for Cypress Hill during a tour that featured Badu as a co-headliner. Following an introduction through the mutual connection, Badu reached out to Maman, and the two spent time in his Los Angeles studio developing material together. Both artists cite similar creative approaches and compositional philosophies as central to their productive partnership.
Badu, now 55, addressed the lengthy gap between releases by explaining that extended periods away from recording allow her to accumulate life experiences and observations that inform her songwriting. She described her creative process as one of gathering information before channeling it through music composition, emphasizing the importance of time spent living and learning between projects.
Badu rose to prominence in 1997 with her debut album Baduizm, which the music industry helped position within the emerging “neo soul” movement. Despite this early categorization, Badu has consistently resisted genre limitations throughout her career, rejecting attempts to define her artistically. In interviews, she has reflected on her background in Dallas and her early influences, which ranged from funk and soul artists to rock and folk musicians, shaping her boundary-pushing approach to music creation.
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