Erykah Badu Shares Insights on Upcoming Collaborative Album With The Alchemist

Erykah Badu has opened up about her highly-anticipated collaborative album with The Alchemist. In a recent interview with Billboard, the legendary singer revealed that while she doesn’t follow hip-hop as closely as she did in her youth, she still holds a deep love for the genre.

“[The thing I like about rap right now] is the same thing I liked about rap when I first met it,” Badu explained. “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.” She also noted that working on the new album has consumed much of her time, and she is eager to finally complete it.

When Is Erykah Badu’s New Album Dropping?

Badu has yet to announce an official release date for the project, but she recently gave fans a sneak peek at some of the new music via Instagram. The album will mark her first studio release since New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) in 2010.

Before teaming up with The Alchemist, Badu collaborated with Rapsody on “3:AM,” a track from Rapsody’s album Please Don’t Cry. The song earned them a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance. Reflecting on the collaboration in an interview with VIBE last year, Badu shared how their creative chemistry developed.

“That’s the one record I have enjoyed the most because it was a process, and getting to know her more and building a deeper friendship,” she said. “She’s such a beautiful human being. You know the talent is in this style icon. She FaceTimed me the first time and she didn’t even say hello. She was in bed and she had a microphone and she was just humming melodies, and it was so dope to see her process. And we were speaking the other day and I told her, ‘I appreciate your process. You taught me how to slow down.’”

With anticipation building, fans are eager to hear what Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have in store for this long-awaited musical collaboration.