PRE-ORDER: Erykah Badu & The Alchemist "Before the World Blows" Cassette (Alchemist Cover Cassette Two)
PRE-ORDER: Erykah Badu & The Alchemist "Before the World Blows" Cassette (Alchemist Cover Cassette Two)
Couldn't load pickup availability
THIS IS A PRE-ORDER: We expect this to ship on or around DECEMBER 11th, 2026. Any items that are ordered with this will be held until they can all ship together. If you need certain items faster please order them separately.
In the eleven years since her last project, Erykah Badu has gathered not conclusions but a series of existential insights. Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment exists within the tension between introspection and growth. Abi is Badu. Alan is The Alchemist. Recorded over 18 months in Dallas and Los Angeles, the album is the inevitable collision of two iconoclasts—hypnotic, funny, blunt, deeply personal, and impossible to categorize neatly.
Meditative and fluid, Before the World Blows finds Badu contemplating which parts of ourselves and our stories are worth protecting before the world breaks and fragments. Love, innocence, dreams, memories, womanhood. The album unfolds in four movements, charting the progression of self through the prisms of love, art, and identity, inviting us to sit with difficult feelings. Passion blurs with desire, hope with grief, each song revealing another illuminating facet of the inner Baduverse.
Alchemist sent Badu a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, looping his warm, punchy samples with instruments from soft kalimba notes to immersive chords and drums. 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, Abi and Alan road-tested the entire album live, performing in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu’s digital collective, The Cannabinoids, and Alchemist on the MPC, fine-tuning the tracks along the way.
Badu has always seen art as an inevitable, infinite extension of the self. At any point in space and time, that means evolution is inevitable, too. Before the world blows, it’s worth it to keep exploring. To have one more kiss. Before the world blows, it’s worth it to get to know thyself.
street date 12/11/2026
Shipping, Returns & Cancellations
Shipping, Returns & Cancellations
SHIPPING:
We ship Monday through Friday. Orders typically ship within 24-72 hours. Tracking is sent to the email you provide at check out and may take a few days to become active.
Any items ordered with Pre-Orders will be held until they can all ship together. If you need in stock items faster please order them seperately.
RETURNS:
Returns are only accepted on damaged or defective items. Return requests must be made within 7 days of delivery. Please save the original packaging.
If you own a Crosley, Victrola or any other lower end turntable that has no ability to adjust the weight of the tone arm and are experiencing skipping on a new record please try the "Penny Trick". Simply place a penny on the top of the cartidge and it should provide enough weight to resolve your issues. While a great entry to the world of vinyl we do recommend upgrading to a turntable with a tone arm that can be adjusted as this issue will randomly occur. We do not take returns in these cases.
Resellers: If you are buying from us for resale we honestly don't mind. However, please don't panic if something you bought suddenly isn't flipable for more money and then try to return stuff to us because you feel like you made a bad investment choice. Despite our outsized reputation we're a small shop, not amazon. Absorbing these costs adds up on places like ours. Plus a little patience always tends to pay off.
CANCELLATIONS:
Due to an increasing number of payment processors no longer returning transaction fees to sellers on cancelled orders and rising labor costs any orders or pre-orders that need to be cancelled before shipment will be assessed a 5% cancellation/restocking fee on the order total including shipping and any other taxes or fees associated with the order.
Thank you for your understanding.
Share
-
All Domestic orders over $75 ship for free!
Free shipping threshold does not include sales tax.