The 10 best albums produced by The Alchemist
Hip-hop has changed a lot over the years, but, through all its variations, one constant has remained: The Alchemist.
That isn’t to say the renowned producer hasn’t evolved alongside the genre; he certainly has, but he has always been present, ever since his adolescent beginnings in the early 1990s, right up to the present day, where he is one of the most celebrated producers out there.
A master sampler who has produced songs for legends including Eminem, Nas, and Kendrick Lamar, The Alchemist has also released some incredible albums of his own, either as a solo artist or as part of a collaborative effort with others.
Here we’ll take a look at some of his best.
The 10 best albums produced by The Alchemist
10. 1st Infantry (2004)
The first of The Alchemist’s solo albums, 1st Infantry features legendary figures like Prodigy, Nas and The Game, but it is decidedly his own work. The album was never a mainstream hit, but, from our perspective today, it is an instructive record within his canon. It highlights what’s great about The Alchemist, who has a remarkable ability to bring together a cast of amazing rappers and to lay down sample-heavy, genre-spanning beats for them to play upon.
It may not be the greatest album of all time, but 1st Infantry gestures towards the incredible work that is still to come from its maker, and it is worth diving into for that reason alone.
9. Continuance with Curren$y (2022)
The Alchemist shares a certain amount in common with rapper Curren$y, in that both are musically adaptable artists with a hard-working ethic and decent staying power, seeing as they’ve been around for a long time now. Perhaps that’s why they work so well together.
Together they’ve produced a number of mixtapes, but it was only in 2022 that they finally put together a proper album. Continuance is a slow-burn of an LP, a foggy, colourful thing that doesn’t necessarily blow you away on the first listen, but, with patience and a few more listens, the depth of The Alchemist’s compositions can be discerned through the haze.
8. The Great Escape with Larry June (2023)
The Alchemist and Larry June liked each other a lot, but becoming friends with someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll work well with them. In fact, before work started on their album The Great Escape, The Alchemist had his doubts about it. In his words, as he relayed them to Rolling Stone in 2023, he wasn’t confident that they would “find a bag” creatively. But, when it finally came down to it, their friendship melted into a wonderful collaboration.
The success of The Great Escape must have been such a relief for Larry, given how much of a fan of his collaborator he was. As he told Rolling Stone, “Al was somebody I looked up to musically, too. He’s done so much in hip-hop for him to be able to be relevant and jump on a new artist like myself and rap, make all the beats, and still got a crazy legacy.” Larry was truly grateful that the collaboration panned out and did so well.
7. The Elephant Man’s Bones with Roc Marciano (2022)
The first half of the 2020s has proven to be a prolonged purple patch for The Alchemist, with a bunch of great releases coming out throughout the decade—an impressive feat for someone who has been working creatively for this long.
The Elephant Man’s Bones, his album with Roc Marciano, is up there with the best of them. A moody album with an experimental, almost jazz-like feel at times, ‘Daddy Kane’, which features Action Bronson, is a particular highlight. A smooth track that, nonetheless, melts into a bad trip right at the end, making sure, among other things, that The Alchemist keeps his listeners on their toes.
6. Haram with Armand Hammer (2021)
Haram is another of the 2020s releases, a collaboration with the experimental hip-hop duo Armand Hammer. It’s a match made in heaven because The Alchemist, while adept at producing so many different styles and feels, is especially good at getting under the listeners’ skin.
He so often makes laid-back music that is ostensibly easy to listen to, but there is also, more often than not, a sense of anxiety evident in his work. A sense that, at any moment, he will jolt us out of the relaxed state he’s induced us into, and the duo Armand Hammer, of all rappers, really suit that vibe.
5. Lord Steppington with Evidence (2014)
The Alchemist and Evidence, the Dilated Peoples emcee, are together known as Step Brothers, and their only studio album together under that name is 2014’s Lord Steppington. The loops that The Alchemist deploys can be particularly trippy on this LP, as in the track ‘Dr Kimble’, which bears an uncomfortable tension throughout.
The two men play off each other really well on the album, with Evidence proving more than capable of dipping in and out of his partner’s colourful, hyperactive weirdness. The use of the obscure 1980s track ‘Casino’ by Zed on ‘See the Rich Man Play’ illustrates The Alchemist’s particular genius for refashioning old works into something entirely new. Nobody can quite do what he does, and this album is a perfect example.
4. Voir Dire with Earl Sweatshirt (2023)
The build-up to Voir Dire, The Alchemist’s collaborative album with Earl Sweatshirt, was fairly lengthy. It was first teased as far back as 2019, but it was only released in 2023—and even then, only as an NFT, initially. It hit streaming platforms some months later, which thankfully meant more people were able to hear it.
Filled with obscure soul samples, it bears the hallmarks of a typical Alchemist production, but Earl Sweatshirt’s laid-back, restrained delivery certainly leaves its mark on the album, too. It’s a great LP, which takes its name from a French phrase meaning “speak the truth”, which, apparently, is a nod to Earl Sweatshirt’s mother, who is a legal expert of some renown.
3. (M.1.C.S.) My 1st Chemistry Set with Boldy James (2013)
2013’s (M.1.C.S.) My 1st Chemistry Set is The Alchemist’s first full-length collaboration with Boldy James—though it isn’t the last. The pair would work together on follow-up albums, The Price of Tea in China, Bo Jackson, and Super Tecmo Bo, so it’s fair to say that they enjoy a healthy working relationship.
The Alchemist’s production style can never exactly be described as bare, but it’s fairly minimalist by his own standards on this record, while, nonetheless, exhibiting an encyclopaedic knowledge of older, obscure songs from the ’70s and ’80s, as is his signature.
2. Alfredo with Freddie Gibbs (2020)
Before this year’s Alfredo 2, there was, naturally enough, Alfredo, The Alchemist’s acclaimed collaboration with the legendary Freddie Gibbs. Scoring one of The Alchemist’s three Grammy nominations—he was also nominated either side of Alfredo for his work on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr Morale & The Big Steppers, though he’s never won one—Alfredo was one of the best albums of 2020, setting down a marker alongside Run The Jewels’ RTJ4 for other hip-hop artists to aspire towards for the rest of the decade.
The Alchemist was reportedly nervous about working with an artist as accomplished as Gibbs, but the record they made proved to be such a success that they had to do it again. Its sequel, Alfredo 2, was released at the end of July.
1. Albert Einstein with Prodigy (2013)
Albert Einstein is the second collaborative album by The Alchemist and Prodigy of Mobb Deep fame, and it would, sadly, prove to be the last one. Four years after it came out, Prodigy died, leaving behind a legacy into which The Alchemist is tightly tied. The pair got to know each other during the ’90s, with the producer coming on board for a few tracks on Mobb Deep’s 1999 album Murda Muzik, and their working relationship would continue throughout Prodigy’s solo career.
After the rapper spent some time in prison, The Alchemist really helped him to pull his music career up by the bootstraps again. Albert Einstein, while a premature end to their partnership, was at least a worthy one.