Before the World Blows

Alchemist sent the instrumentals and Badu took them apart, adding kalimba, rewriting chords, moving drum patterns and executive producing the result, which is why this plays as an exchange between two producers rather than a vocalist visiting a familiar beat catalog. The guest list runs wider than anything else in her catalog, with Westside Gunn appearing twice alongside Earl Sweatshirt, Thundercat, Steve Lacy, DRAM, Joi and Kamasi Washington on "Black Box." Streaming services list it as Before the World Blows while press materials carry the longer subtitle The Abi and Alan Experiment, after Erica Abi Wright and Alan Maman. Play it in sequence, since the two-part run of "What The People Say (Apostle 1)" and "Hot BiBi (Apostle 2)" is built to be heard in place. Badu spent 15 years on mixtapes, features and live work instead of studio albums, and Alchemist is the collaborator who finally drew a full-length out of her.