Alchemist on Working With Future: “We’re in Contact”
Okayplayer chats with Alchemist about his new joint albums, Prodigy, Future and more.
Rapper/producer The Alchemist performs onstage during Day 1 of Rolling Loud Los Angeles at NOS Events Center on December 10, 2021 in San Bernardino, California.
Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images.
On its surface, putting together a semi-posthumous album is a nearly insurmountable task. A crucial focal point of the music isn’t there. You don’t know how they’d adjust to what production. In this respect, The Alchemist had a couple of advantages when working on Mobb Deep’s latest album, Infinite. One: he still had Havoc, the sonic architect and wordsmith responsible for one half of Mobb Deep’s legacy. Two: he still talks to Prodigy. Spiritually, at least.
“When you talk to somebody that's gone and when you knew them well, you can still have conversations with them,” Alchemist tells Okayplayer. “I know what stuff P would like right now. I know with clothes and Jordans he would've liked. I think he would’ve liked NBA Youngboy and Kodak Black. He would've f****d with all that s**t. P was a forward thinker.”
While Alc’s guess about Prodigy’s would-be new faves didn’t result in Mobb tracks with Kodak, Mobb Deep’s latest and last album, Infinite, is a testament to love and continuity — of sound, of theme and message. Coasting across menacing production from Hav and Alc, Mobb Deep sounds as in their element as ever, with Nas collaborations evoking all the glory they enjoyed at the peak of their artistic powers. It’s part of a lengthy run of production obstacle courses he’s undertaken over the last 15 years. He and Erykah Badu are still set to drop their own joint album Abi & Alan at some point. Next up, he’s linking up with Armand Hammer once more for Mercy, an LP that’s as refined and nuanced as the duo’s 2023 opus, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips.
“They're super creative and they attack the beat in ways that other artists I work with don't,” ALC says of billy woods and Elucid. “Every time it feels like an opportunity for me to go a little more left too. This new record doesn't sound like the last one.”
As accomplished as he is, Alchemist still has one holy grail: a joint album with Shawn Corey Carter. “I feel like me and Jay-Z could make something that would just be timeless. He's still on the list one day. I'm in a bucket list bag right now.”
The HOV album hasn’t happened. The Yasiin Bey and Alc album has. Last year, the two announced Forensics, a joint LP they’ve played for at least a few different crowds up to this point. There’s no release date for it yet, but ALC says it’s coming. But is there a Future collab on the way? He won’t get too specific about this one, but months ago, he used an X post (formerly Twitter) to say he wanted to work with Hendrix. Now, it sounds like the door’s open: “We’ve been in contact.” And what would a Future and Alchemist collab sound like? “You’re going to have to wait for that one.”
