Erykah Badu Announces ‘Abi & Alan’ Album With The Alchemi…

It looks like we’ll have to wait just a little longer for Abi and Alan to join forces, as Erykah Badu has announced a delay in the release of her duo album with The Alchemist.

On Thursday (August 28), Badu took to Instagram to share that the record, titled Abi & Alan, after the singer’s middle name and the producer’s first, would not be coming out the next day, as originally planned.

“Hey guys,” she said. “Alchemist told me to tell y’all that the album is not dropping at midnight.”

She captioned the post, “Don’t worry tho … No aug 29. It’s @alanthechemist fault,” followed by a smiley face emoji.

No new date has yet been announced.

The project seems like it will be worth the wait, at least according to a writer at the Dallas Observer, who saw the singer and the producer perform in Austin several days ago as they closed out their tour.

“Abi & Alan isn’t a concept album, but it can feel like one at times with how concentrated it is on its distinct sound and aesthetic,” wrote The Observer‘s Simon Pruitt. “It marks Badu at her most lo-fi and electronic.”

Abi & Alan is set to be Badu’s first album since 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). Badu and The Alchemist recently hit Drink Champs to promote the project.

The AI-generated cover art for a single from the album, “Next to You,” got some pushback when it was released earlier this summer.

The producer seemed unbothered by the criticism, posting on X: “It should be a case study how people just assume things on here, then make whole theories commentaries and get distraught lol. I like pretzels!”