“I like to be a place where people can create and hear things that are musical and magical and creative,” Erykah Badu tells Apple Music. “[Alchemist] sent me a handful of beats, and I sat on them for a while. I don’t know how I know the time was right, but the music really motivated me.” And so begins the story of one of the more casually significant collaborations in modern hip-hop. More than just a meeting of the minds, Before the World Blows plays like a highlight reel of two genuine innovators, artists who have played around the periphery of the mainstream for more than 30 years while tirelessly doing things their own way. It’s also Badu’s first album in more than 15 years—a major milestone in one of the more casually impacting careers in pop. Neither artist has ever seemed inclined to work on other people’s clocks, instead letting their sizable influence accrue while weaving in and out of the mainstream. This quality is especially true of Alchemist, a producer who in the mid-2000s might’ve been considered an interesting footnote to East Coast rap, but 10 years later was being revitalized as a go-to for gritty, underground torchbearers from Earl Sweatshirt to Westside Gunn. (Both share some spotlight here.) And this project—first hinted at publicly by Badu as early as March 2025—provided each of the principals with opportunities to learn and experiment that their many other collaborations through the years may not have. “Sometimes we lose track when we’re so focused on our goals and creating that I may have had a brash way,” Alchemist says. “And I learned with her how to be more respectful, calm, and get across your ideas. Sometimes, when you’re on a mission, you’re not thinking about all that stuff.” “Before I met [Al], I was kind of hardening up,” says Badu. “Al kind of helps me to lighten up and remember why I am doing what I am doing. You’re not doing it for your moment, you’re not doing it to win anything, you’re doing it because you love what you do.” Slow and spacious as the music is, there’s a lot to hang on to here. If anything, Before…’s most outstanding quality is just how many sounds and ideas it manages to pack into a space that never feels too crowded or hurried: vocal hooks that drift in and out like voice notes, supple ’70s-style electric piano, basslines that carry real melodic weight, melting movie samples, and plenty of live percussion. In some ways, the album plays like a summary of the sound both Badu and Al have been refining for 30 years now, blurring the line between hip-hop and R&B, seductive and sinister, the directness of street rap and cosmic settledness of new LA jazz. The guest list reflects this influence: Earl Sweatshirt on “I Know That Man” (“Some brilliant human,” Badu says), Thundercat on “They Ain’t You,” the grimy Westside Gunn on “No I.D.,” and infinitely smooth Steve Lacy on “To the Moon.” “Crossfade” is a highlight. Ditto “Love Me Not” (“Now in hindsight I think it happen kinda subtle/He only wanna fuck, but I really wanna cuddle”), and the stunning one-two of “I Know That Man” and “Black Box,” whose choir and saxophones—led by Kamasi Washington—carry on regally into the mist. While the album’s title suggests apocalypse, a little bit of end-times urgency helped Badu see the project through. “I think I got the idea from scrolling and doomscrolling and seeing, ‘Oh, the weather is doing this, and it’s gonna cause this, and this person is now gonna take over, and this is gonna happen,’ and just—all of the things that are happening,” she says. “I’m thinking, ‘Damn, this shit gonna blow up at some point. Maybe we need to finish this album before the world blows.’”