Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have officially announced that their highly anticipated joint album will be released digitally on Friday, August 28, 2026, via Control FREAQ Records / Young Recordings. The co-produced album was recorded over 18 months in Dallas and Los Angeles, and marks the inevitable collision of two iconoclasts: hypnotic, funny, blunt, deeply personal, and impossible to categorize neatly.
The album announcement arrives alongside the new single “Witch Doctor,” following the previously released “Next To You” and the Amazon Music exclusive “Echos 19 (mix 122),” which debuted during Badu Presents: Echos 19 Juneteenth concert celebration in Dallas.
A Long-Awaited Return
In the eleven years since her last project and sixteen since her last official studio album, Erykah Badu has gathered not conclusions but a series of existential insights via a whirlwind of touring, teaching, motherhood, doula work, and the kind of deep reflection made possible by living and raising children in a rapidly changing world.
Meanwhile, The Alchemist has remained one of hip-hop’s most prolific producers, releasing multiple projects a year, most recently Alfredo 2 with Freddie Gibbs, the sequel to their Grammy-nominated 2020 album Alfredo.
The Abi and Alan Experiment
The project began more than three years ago after Badu told her longtime creative partner Cold Cris that she had always wanted to rap over Mobb Deep’s “The Realest,” a gritty, pounding Alchemist production. The Alchemist—who had quietly been hoping to work with Badu for years—was introduced soon after, and their conversations grew into a full-fledged collaborative project.
The duo’s first studio session together in Los Angeles yielded the previously released “Next To You,” laying the foundation for what would become an entirely new sonic language. The Alchemist sent Badu a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, embellishing his warm, punchy samples with instruments from soft kalimba notes to immersive chords and drums.
A Genre-Defying Sound
The result moves fluidly between soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz, and underground hip-hop, yet belongs entirely to none of them. From 2024 to 2025, Badu and The Alchemist road-tested the entire album live, performing in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu’s digital collective, The Cannabinoids, and The Alchemist on the MPC, fine-tuning the tracks along the way.
The result is one of the most forward-thinking bodies of work of either artist’s career: a record that will live, love, and evolve with you through space and time. It invites you to keep exploring yourself, to have one more kiss, one more hit, one more dance, one more joke—all before the world blows.
Listen to “Witch Doctor” now and pre-save the album ahead of its August 28 release.
The Pop Blog general news and updates, mostly from press releases and conferences.