On Friday, Badu released two new songs, “Echos 19 (mix 122)” and “Next to You.” “Echos 19 (mix 122)” is available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music for a limited time. This is her first official release since 2015’s But You Caint Use My Phone mixtape and her 2010 album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh).
You can listen to “Echos 19 (mix 122)” here and “Next to You” here or watch the visualizer below. At her Juneteenth show at The Bomb Factory, she opened with “Echos 19 (mix 122).” Badu sings boldly about themes of religion, slavery and not letting the devil stop “my train that's on schedule.” She references John Lennon and Odd Future, singing, "So fellas, please watch how you treat your girl / 'Cause the future looks odd these days / That's on Tyler, Frank and Earl." She then calls on her ancestors, thanking them and putting it on the next generation to rise above the ashes like a phoenix in their place.
“Next to You” was played at the end of her Juneteenth show. On the song, The Alchemist samples Mobb Deep featuring Kool G Rap's “The Realest.” Released under her own imprint, Control Freaq Records and Empire, it's a hypnotizing love song for laid-back summer days.
Badu has hip-hop heads patiently waiting for her upcoming album, entirely produced by The Alchemist. She has spoken about her delay in releasing music during a 2024 interview with The Breakfast Club. She said, “One reason I don’t have to is because I am a performance artist and I’ve been doing that constantly for the last 30 years. Eight months out of the year, all year around, I do. That’s what I love to do.”
“I only put out albums when I have something to say,” she told Charlamagne tha God. “Something pressing to say or push out. I have more than enough space to get my art out on stage, so it is not totally necessary to put out albums for me.”
Since that interview, Badu told Billboard’s Damien Scott her views on the current state of hip-hop, which led to the reveal that she’s been hard at work on her first studio album in 15 years.
“[The thing I like about rap right now] is the same thing I liked about rap when I first met it,” she said. “Rap is the people. Hip-hop is the people. It’s the folks. It’s the tribe. I have the luxury of experiencing having children who I watch grow up and love and encourage very much, and I cannot separate them when I see artists who are that age coming up. That’s how they feel. They are continuing the tradition.”
Other local artists have released music outside of Badu. DucatiDC and Dorrough team up for a Juneteenth hip-hop anthem, featuring a posthumous freestyle from Pimp C.
BigXThaPlug, who shut down Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with Shaboozey to shoot a video earlier this week, joined Teddy Swims for the new track “All Gas No Brakes.”
You can listen to “Juneteenth Music” and “All Gas No Brakes” below.@bigxdaily #BigXthaPlug rented a bridge with #shaboozey 🔥🔥 #fypシ ♬ original sound - bigxdaily
