Erykah Badu returns with her first full-length project in 11 years

Erykah Badu has ended one of modern soul music’s longest recording gaps with Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment, a collaborative project made with producer The Alchemist.

Released Friday, August 28, the album is Badu’s first full-length project since the 2015 mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone. It is also her first studio album since New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) arrived in 2010.

A collaboration that took time

Badu first revealed in March 2025 that she was working with The Alchemist, whose production credits span generations of hip-hop. The pair later released “Next to You,” followed by “Witch Doctor” earlier this month as anticipation around the project grew.

The finished album brings Badu’s improvisational, conversational style into The Alchemist’s textured production. Stereogum reports that the guest list includes Steve Lacy, Earl Sweatshirt, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington, DRAM, Joi, DJ Creole Princess and Westside Gunn.

Badu treats the long wait as part of the work

In an interview with The Guardian, Badu described the years between projects as a period of living, learning and gathering ideas rather than a retreat from music. She said experience eventually finds its way into her writing when she has accumulated enough to express.

The release adds a new chapter to a career that helped define neo-soul after Baduizm made her a major artist in 1997. Rather than trying to recreate that era, the new collaboration places her voice and phrasing inside a production world closely associated with underground rap.

That pairing makes the comeback more than a routine return. It connects Badu’s experimental R&B lineage with one of hip-hop’s most prolific contemporary producers, while giving listeners her first album-length statement in more than a decade.