The write-up
Okay, Erykah Badu and The Alchemist together just makes sense to me.
And after waiting 16 years for another Erykah Badu studio album, I love that she didn’t come back trying to recreate Baduizm or give us something that felt safe or familiar. She came back doing what Erykah has always done best: being completely in her own world.
Before the World Blows feels like two artists who genuinely understand each other creatively. You still get everything we love about Erykah: the soul, the jazz influence, the funk, the stacked harmonies, the weird little vocal choices, the spirituality and that effortless coolness she’s always had. But then you have The Alchemist underneath all of that with these gritty drums, loops, samples and darker hip-hop textures.
And baby… THE PRODUCTION.
That was immediately one of my favorite things about this project.
I also love hearing Erykah tap into her hip-hop bag because people sometimes forget how deeply rooted she is in hip-hop. She’ll be floating and singing one minute, then switch her cadence and start getting in a pocket like a rapper the next. Putting her over Alchemist production really gives her the perfect playground to do both.
And this album feels like a playground. It doesn’t stay in one place sonically. We’re moving through neo-soul, hip-hop, jazz, funk and alternative R&B, but nothing feels forced. It still feels like one complete body of work.
Even when Alchemist pulls from something familiar, Erykah finds a way to make it hers. “Next 2 U” revisits the beat from Mobb Deep’s “The Realest,” and hearing Erykah Badu float over a beat with that kind of hip-hop history behind it? Yeah. That’s my type of shit.
Then you have records like “Witch Doctor,” “Crossfade,” “Love Me Not,” “They Ain’t You,” “I Know That Man” and “Black Box” that really show you just how much is happening throughout this album.
Even the features feel intentional. Westside Gunn, Earl Sweatshirt, Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington… everybody fits into the world instead of feeling like they were added just to have a big name on the tracklist.
But this is NOT an album I would listen to once and immediately run to the internet with a review.
You gotta sit with this one.
There are too many little details happening in the production, the instrumentation, Erykah’s vocal arrangements and the samples. I already know this is the type of project where I’m going to hear something completely different on listen number five that I didn’t even catch on listen number one.
And that’s what I miss about albums.
Give me something to STUDY. Give me something to go back to. Give me something where my favorite record changes three times because I keep discovering new shit.
After 16 years, Erykah Badu didn’t come back trying to remind us why she’s Erykah Badu. She already knows we know.
Instead, she linked with The Alchemist, got weird, got soulful, tapped back into those hip-hop roots and gave us a body of work that sounds nostalgic without feeling stuck in the past.
This is exactly the type of music that reminds me why I love doing this.
Playlist Girl approved.