The Alchemist Interview: TIDAL Backstory | TIDAL Magazine

*The beats that made his 2020s undeniable.*

Nobody working today has a run like this. Three decades into his career, The Alchemist has spent the 2020s stacking placements across every corner of hip-hop West Coast legends, Griselda’s street-level lyricists, underground purists, and the biggest rap album rollouts in the game — without his sound ever losing its identity. A Scottie Beam and a Bunce Road Blues can exist five years apart and still sound unmistakably like the same producer at work.

This isn’t a ranking. It’s ten records, no particular order, that show the range of what Alchemist has done this decade — and why his name in a credit still means something.

## Freddie Gibbs — “Scottie Beam” (ft. Rick Ross )

The centerpiece of *Alfredo* and the song that got Alchemist a Grammy nomination talked about outside of rap circles. The beat switch two minutes in is the whole thesis of what makes him different.

## Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist — “The Caliphate” (ft. Vince Staples)

A *Voir Dire* bonus cut that hits harder than half the album cycles built around it. Vince’s monotone slides right into Earl and Al’s hazy, insular pocket like he’d been there the whole time.

## Kendrick Lamar — “We Cry Together”

Alchemist stepping into Kendrick’s world and building something that could carry a five-minute argument and a short film without losing tension for a second. One of the most talked-about records on *Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers*.

## J. Cole — “Bunce Road Blues” (ft. Future & Tems)

Fresh off *The Fall-Off*, and proof Alchemist can walk into a Dreamville-sized rollout and still make the beat the story. Three very different voices, one control room.

## Larry June — “Life Is Beautiful”

The Larry June and Alchemist chemistry distilled into a single record. Laid-back on the surface, meticulous underneath.

## Boldy James & The Alchemist — “Photographic Memories”

The Boldy/Alchemist run has been one of the most consistent partnerships of the decade, and this is one of its quieter standouts detail-heavy production matched with Boldy’s flat, unbothered delivery.

## Larry June — “Summer Reign”

Warm, breezy, built for the car with the windows down. Alchemist at his most effortless-sounding, which is usually when he’s working hardest.

## Freddie Gibbs — “Ensalada”

A deeper cut that doesn’t get the shine of the singles but holds up the same way the rest of the Gibbs catalog does sharp writing over a beat that never overplays its hand.

## Benny The Butcher — “Johnny P’s Caddy”

Alchemist linking with the Griselda camp and delivering something that still sounds like his own record. Benny’s street-level detail over widescreen production.

## ScHoolboy Q — “Lost Times”

Proof the reach goes past his usual circle. Q’s rasp over Alchemist’s loop work is a combination that should happen more.

## Bonus: Armand Hammer & The Alchemist — “Super Nintendo”

Couldn’t leave this one off. The lead single from *Mercy*, and the freshest cut on this list — billy woods and ELUCID locked in with Alchemist’s evolving palette, proof the run isn’t slowing down heading into the back half of the decade.

## The takeaway

Ten records, ten different lanes, one producer holding it all together. That’s the case for The Alchemist right now not just the biggest names lining up to work with him, but the fact that every one of these records still sounds like nobody else could have made it.

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