Erykah Badu and The Alchemist's Joint Album Is Postponed

At long last, we find ourselves just one day away from reaching the light at the end of the Erykah Badu tunnel, a darkness that we’ve grown accustomed to in the 15 years since her last full-fledged release, 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), and 10 years since her 2015 mixtape, But You Caint Use My Phone.

Or so we thought.

On Thursday, Aug. 28, Badu went on IG Live hours before Abi & Alan was supposed to hit streaming services. "The Alchemist told me to tell y'all the album is not dropping at midnight," Badu says.

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Badu was set to release Abi & Alan, a new album in collaboration with hip-hop producer extraordinaire, The Alchemist, on Aug. 29. In June, she released the first new song from the record, “Next To You,” at the close of her free Juneteenth show at The Bomb Factory that was livestreamed on Prime Video.

At the tail-end of this summer, Badu and The Alchemist announced a short 10-date tour to play the new Abi & Alan songs live for the first time, with the final show in Austin on Sunday, Aug. 24, ahead of the record’s release this Friday. We attended the final Abi & Alan show at the ACL Moody Theater in downtown Austin, where we got a taste of what’s to come for the upcoming album. The two played entirely new unreleased songs, save for the first verse of "On & On" and a couple of Badu's classic lyrical interpolations of tracks like "I Want You" and "Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip Hop)."

We’re happy to report that Badu has not lost her mojo, and that The Alchemist’s analog electronic production not only brings the best out of our hometown hero, but a entirely new dimension too. Our phones were locked in Yondr pouches for the show, but from what we remember, songs like “Crossfade” sound like the Baduist classics of old, while a track like “I Play a Part” features her at her grooviest, dare we say pop.

The songs were all brought to life in the studio and live by the Cannabinoids, Badu’s new backing band that features Dallasite RC Williams on keys. Aside from Williams and a drummer, almost all of the instrumentation comes from samplers, DJ decks and electronic synthesizers. But similar to our experience at LCD Soundsystem earlier this year, we were amazed to see all of this complicated electronic production be performed live, a feat that Badu boasted to herself towards the end of the show.

Abi & Alan isn’t a concept album, but it can feel like one at times with how concentrated it is on its distinct sound and aesthetic. It marks Badu at her most lo-fi and electronic. This doesn’t sound like an album that she’s dumping 15 years' worth of songs and ideas onto, but rather a concerted effort to sit down with The Alchemist for a few months and produce a cohesive set of brand new songs.

The record also features guest appearances by Thundercat, Earl Sweatshirt and Kamasi Washington, among others, although we aren’t exactly sure where they’ll end up playing on the album.

We expected Abi & Alan to drop on streaming tonight. We hope to jam out to a new crop of Badu songs this weekend, barring the delay is just a few days and not weeks or months. She'll be performing at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving this December to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her seminal Mama's Gun album.