Erykah Badu is literally about to release her first album in 11 years. To do this, he has chosen The Alchemist, one of the most prolific hip hop producers and a specialist in creating atmospheres with the most minimalist samples. ‘Before The World Blows’ will be available on platforms in 48 hours, this Friday, August 28.
Promoting Badu and Alchemist’s new LP has been complicated. The duo was already talking about a joint album in the spring of 2025 and even supported the announcement with a single last summer. However, the release of the disappointing ‘Next To You’ was overshadowed by the song’s controversial cover art, supposedly made with artificial intelligence. At the time, The Alchemist took the negative responses with humor: “I listen to music with my eyes closed,” he responded to a person in X.
Now, with the waters calm, both artists have found some redemption with the release of ‘Witch Doctor’, the new preview of ‘Before The World Blows’. This is a calm, but thematically furious, 6-minute piece of hip hop, jazz and R&B in which Erykah Badu assures that she is not a witch, but a “healer”: “Maybe I intimidate you at first / But I have come to stimulate your universe,” she sings in the first lines with her unmistakable and lethargic voice.
‘Witch Doctor’ has little to do with the dark arts, although it depends on how you look at it. The song is a wake-up call to the listener, a warning to protect themselves from the turbulent media times in which we find ourselves. Erykah Badu is not “Tabitha, nor Samantha”, protagonists of ‘Bewitched’, nor Stevie Nicks – who has been accused many times of being a witch – because “a witch is just a medium”: “And you eat everything they are feeding you,” she continues. For Badu, that is “witchcraft.”
‘Before The World Drops’ is also not short of collaborations, including in its ranks Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Westside Gunn, Earl Sweatshirt, Kamasi Washington, DRAM, Joi and DJ Creole Princess.
Tracklist:
Echoes
I Just Play A Part
Crossfade (ft. DJ Creole Princess, Westside Gunn, Joi)
Witch Doctor
Valentine (ft. DRAM)
Next 2U
Love Me Not 8. Breezy
Abracadabra
To The Moon (Plan C) (ft. Steve Lacy)
They Ain’t You (ft. Thundercat)
What The People Say (Apostle 1)
Hot BiBi (Apostle 2)
No ID (ft. Westside Gunn)
I Know That Man (ft. Earl Sweatshirt)
Black Box (ft. Kamasi Washington)
