Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment (Cassette, Cover Art Version B)

In the eleven years since her last project, Erykah Badu has gathered a series of existential insights, and Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment is where they land. 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 that chart the self through love, art, and identity. The Alchemist sent Badu instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and rebuilt into tracks that feel like her own, looping his warm, punchy samples with kalimba, chords, and drums, and moving between soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz, and underground hip-hop. Westside Gunn, Thundercat, Steve Lacy, Earl Sweatshirt, Kamasi Washington, Dram, and Joi appear. From 2024 to 2025, Abi and Alan road-tested the whole album live in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu's digital collective, The Cannabinoids, and Alchemist on the MPC. The Alchemist's work is all over our shelves: Life Is Beautiful, Continuance, and Goldfish. He also hosted The Pre-Up with Eminem, a mixtape presented by MICK (then Mick Boogie). Two cover art versions are available: one puts Erykah Badu on the front and The Alchemist on the back, and the other reverses them.

Cassette, Cover Art Version B, Young, 2026

1. Echoes
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)

Young | Release Date: December 11, 2026 | Cassette, Cover Art Version B | UPC: 889030916358