Erykah Badu And The Alchemist Announce Collaborative Album, Share ‘Witch Doctor’

The long-awaited collaborative record will arrive on 28 August, following new single ‘Witch Doctor’.

Erykah Badu and The Alchemist have confirmed that their collaborative album will be released digitally on 28 August 2026 via Control FREAQ Records and Young Recordings.

The pair have also shared new single ‘Witch Doctor’, the latest preview of the project following ‘Next to You’ and the Amazon Music exclusive ‘Echos 19 (mix 122)’, which debuted during Badu’s Echos 19 Juneteenth concert in Dallas.

Recorded across Dallas and Los Angeles over an 18-month period, the as-yet-untitled album marks Badu’s first full-length project in 11 years and her first official studio album since 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh).

The collaboration first began more than three years ago after Badu told longtime creative partner Cold Cris that she wanted to rap over Mobb Deep’s ‘The Realest’, which was produced by The Alchemist. The two artists were subsequently introduced and began working together, with their first Los Angeles studio session producing ‘Next to You’.

For the album, The Alchemist supplied Badu with a collection of instrumentals that she then reshaped and expanded with additional instrumentation. The resulting record draws from soul, blues, funk, rock, jazz and underground hip-hop.

The pair also spent 2024 and 2025 developing the material onstage, performing the album in intimate phone-free shows alongside Badu’s digital collective The Cannabinoids, with The Alchemist performing on MPC.

The Alchemist has remained particularly prolific in recent years, most recently reuniting with Freddie Gibbs for Alfredo 2, the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated 2020 collaboration Alfredo.

Badu and The Alchemist will take the project on tour across North America this September, beginning at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois on 10 September. The run includes stops in Toronto, New York, Washington D.C., Denver and Berkeley before concluding at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 29 September.

The collaborative album arrives digitally on 28 August 2026. ‘Witch Doctor’ is out now.