THIS IS A PRE-ORDER - Shipping from Dec 11

Erykah Badu & The Alchemist - Before The World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment 2LP (Transparent Neon Orange Vinyl)

Gatefold 2xLP on Transparent Neon Orange vinyl including lyric sheet insert and belly band

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 categorize 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, womanhood. The album unfolds in four movements, charting the progression of self through the prisms of love, art, and identity, inviting us to sit with difficult feelings. Passion blurs with desire, hope with
grief, each song revealing another illuminating facet of the inner Baduverse.
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, Abi and Alan road-tested the entire album
live, performing in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu’s digital collective, The
Cannabinoids, and Alchemist on the MPC, fine-tuning the tracks along the way.
Badu has always seen art as an inevitable, infinite extension of the self. At any point in
space and time, that means evolution is inevitable, too. Before the world blows, it’s
worth it to keep exploring. To have one more kiss. Before the world blows, it’s worth it to
get to know thyself.

Tracklist:

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

This item will ship on Dec 11, 2026, however due to supplier delivery delays, this date may change. Items that are ordered together, will ship together.