The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London’s Soho hotel and quietly asks for some changes to the atmosphere: lights dimmed, soft seat. A green juice would be great. As it turns out, Badu was out last night with Dave Chappelle, sitting with the comedian at a grand piano and playing songs into the wee hours.
She looks mischievous when she thinks about the impromptu party, but declines to go into detail about what, exactly, went on. Instead, the 55-year-old smiles at me, eyes wide, her gold teeth glinting in the low light: “Oh yes,” she says slowly and quietly, like some kind of mysterious warlock. She and I are here to talk about Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment, a collaborative record with famed underground producer the Alchemist.
It’s Badu’s first full-length project since the release of 2015’s But You Caint Use My Phone mixtape, and its dense, layered sound feels like an internet-fried take on her era-defining New Amerykah albums, from 2008 and 2010. It’s surprising, I suggest, that she has taken so long between records, given how much she analyses the world around her. She says that’s the point.
But when the thing gets kind of full, I download it through writing music.” Badu has been a star since 1997, when the release of her debut album, Baduizm, announced her as one of the leading lights of what music industry executive Kedar Massenburg called “neo soul”, a new wave of alternative soul and R&B. In the years since, a handful of wild, boundary-pushing records have made Badu one of the most revered artists in the world. The Alchemist – LA producer Alan Maman – was one of those early fans.
In 1997, he was a roadie for Cypress Hill, who were co-headlining the Smokin’ Grooves tour alongside Badu. A few years ago, while DJing a party, he ran into an old friend named Cold Cris who happened to work for Badu, and told him that working with her was on his bucket list. Two years after that, he got the call that Badu was interested in playing around with his beats.
She came to his studio in LA, and the pair, he says, “instantly became friends, and realised how much shit we had in common, in the way we create, the way we think”. The way we build is the same. I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s a burning, beautiful fire.
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