Erykah Badu & Special Guests Bring De La Soul, The Alchemist and Smino to Mohegan Sun Arena

Erykah Badu & Special Guests brings together several generations of soul and hip-hop at Mohegan Sun Arena on Thursday, September 17, with Badu joined by De La Soul, The Alchemist and Smino for the Connecticut stop of her 2026 LIVE tour.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Uncasville and is one of a limited series of North American dates built around Badu and producer The Alchemist, with different guests joining them along the way.

For Mohegan Sun, the lineup is particularly deep. Hip-hop pioneers De La Soul are officially billed for the show, while Mohegan Sun’s tour announcement specifically confirms rapper and songwriter Smino for the Connecticut date.

Nearly 30 years after Baduizm introduced Badu to a mass audience, she remains difficult to fit neatly into any one musical category. That may be exactly why this particular collection of artists makes sense.

Baduizm Changed the Conversation in 1997

When Baduizm arrived in 1997, mainstream R&B was already thriving.

Badu sounded different.

Her music drew from soul, jazz, hip-hop and funk without sounding like a deliberate exercise in combining genres. The arrangements could be sparse and groove-heavy, leaving unusual amounts of room for her voice.

Then there was the voice itself.

On & On became Badu’s breakthrough single, while Baduizm went multi-platinum and helped establish what became known as neo-soul.

The label would eventually encompass artists including D’Angelo, Maxwell, Jill Scott and others who drew heavily from classic soul while refusing to simply recreate it.

Badu became one of the movement’s defining figures.

She also won Grammys for Baduizm and On & On, beginning a career that has produced five Grammy Awards.

Then Came Mama’s Gun

If Baduizm introduced Badu, Mama’s Gun demonstrated how far she was willing to push the idea.

Released in 2000, the album included Bag Lady and Didn’t Cha Know? while moving deeper into funk, jazz and increasingly adventurous songwriting.

Green Eyes stretched beyond ten minutes.

Badu wasn’t structuring everything around radio.

That willingness to let songs expand has carried directly into her concerts. Her performances can involve improvisation and reinterpretation rather than simply reproducing the studio recordings note for note.

Mohegan Sun describes the LIVE tour as a celebration of creativity, collaboration and improvisation.

That’s particularly appropriate for Badu.

Her catalog provides the framework.

What happens with it onstage can be something else.

The Alchemist Connects This Tour to Badu’s Next Chapter

The Alchemist isn’t simply an opening act attached to the tour.

The veteran producer and Badu have been working together on new music.

Born Alan Maman, The Alchemist has spent decades building one of hip-hop’s most respected production catalogs, working with artists ranging from Mobb Deep and Nas to Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs, Earl Sweatshirt and Action Bronson.

His production often favors unusual samples, atmospheric loops and deliberately imperfect textures rather than glossy pop construction.

That aesthetic makes his collaboration with Badu particularly intriguing.

The two released Next to You as part of their developing joint project, Abi & Alan, and their 2026 touring has increasingly brought their musical worlds together.

That means Thursday’s concert isn’t simply Badu revisiting the 1990s.

There’s new music in the equation.

De La Soul Brings Nearly Four Decades of Hip-Hop History

Then there’s De La Soul.

The Long Island trio of Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove and Maseo changed expectations for what a hip-hop group could sound and look like with the 1989 release of 3 Feet High and Rising.

At a moment when hip-hop imagery was moving in several very different directions, De La Soul arrived with dense sampling, humor, surrealism and an album structured almost like its own strange little universe.

Me Myself and I became the group’s best-known early hit, but its influence went much deeper.

De La Soul became central to the Native Tongues collective alongside A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and others, helping establish an alternative branch of hip-hop that prized experimentation as much as commercial formulas.

The group later won a Grammy through its collaboration with Gorillaz on Feel Good Inc.

Trugoy, born David Jolicoeur, died in 2023.

Posdnuos and Maseo have continued De La Soul, making the group’s appearance Thursday both a celebration of its catalog and the continuation of a story that began nearly four decades ago.

Smino Adds Another Generation to the Bill

Mohegan Sun’s original announcement also confirms Smino as a special guest specifically for the September 17 performance.

The St. Louis-born rapper and singer represents a considerably younger branch of the same musical family tree.

His work moves between hip-hop, R&B, funk and soul, often treating singing and rapping as parts of the same vocabulary rather than separate modes.

Albums including blkswn and Luv 4 Rent established his elastic vocal style and preference for unconventional production.

That makes the Mohegan Sun lineup span an unusual amount of musical history.

De La Soul emerged in the late 1980s.

Badu broke nationally in the 1990s.

The Alchemist’s production career stretches from that era into contemporary hip-hop.

Smino represents a generation that grew up with all of it already available.

Badu and Hip-Hop Have Always Been Closely Connected

Putting Badu on a bill with hip-hop artists isn’t really crossing genres.

Hip-hop has been embedded in her music from the beginning.

She collaborated with The Roots on You Got Me, which won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Common appeared on Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop), a song whose title makes the relationship explicit.

Her records have always treated soul, jazz and hip-hop less like separate departments and more like neighboring rooms with the doors left open.

That helps explain why a producer such as The Alchemist can become a creative partner rather than simply remixing her existing work.

It also explains why De La Soul doesn’t feel like a nostalgia act bolted onto an R&B concert.

There are decades of musical connections running through this lineup.

Thursday’s Set Could Reach Across Badu’s Career

Badu’s recent performances have been drawing from both familiar material and her collaboration with The Alchemist.

That makes songs such as On & On, Didn’t Cha Know? and Green Eyes reasonable parts of the musical vocabulary of the current tour, alongside newer collaborative material.

But Badu’s emphasis on improvisation makes predicting an exact Mohegan Sun setlist a bad bet.

That’s part of the appeal.

A Badu concert has never been solely about checking famous songs off a list.

The songs can stretch.

Arrangements can change.

Transitions can become performances themselves.

The current tour is being explicitly framed around that live unpredictability.

One Night at Mohegan Sun

The show arrives at Mohegan Sun Arena, the resort’s roughly 10,000-seat concert venue.

Free self-parking is available in Mohegan Sun’s garages and Winter Lot. Reserved parking in the Riverview Garage can also be purchased in advance.

Arena guests should pay particular attention to the bag policy.

Backpacks, string bags, diaper bags, shopping bags, messenger bags, briefcases and rolling-style bags are prohibited. Anyone planning to carry a bag should check Mohegan Sun’s current arena policy before leaving home.

Tickets remain available through the official ticketing link.

Nearly 40 Years of Musical Evolution on One Stage

There is an obvious nostalgia angle to Thursday’s show.

3 Feet High and Rising is 37 years old.

Baduizm is approaching 30.

Both records belong to eras of hip-hop and R&B that now have their own histories, anniversaries and generations of younger musicians who grew up studying them.

But the more interesting thing about this lineup is that none of the artists needs to remain trapped there.

De La Soul is still performing.

The Alchemist remains deeply involved in contemporary hip-hop.

Smino belongs entirely to a later generation.

And Badu is touring with a producer who has helped her make new music rather than simply mounting an anniversary tour around an old album.

That’s a pretty good representation of what happens when influential music survives long enough.

Eventually the past, present and whatever comes next all end up sharing the same stage.

Details

Event: Erykah Badu & Special Guests
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
Time: 8 p.m.
Venue: Mohegan Sun Arena
Address: 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard, Uncasville, CT 06382
Headliner: Erykah Badu
Special Guests: De La Soul, The Alchemist and Smino
Tour: LIVE
Music: R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, soul, jazz and funk influences
Tickets: Ticketed event; current prices and availability vary by seat
Parking: Complimentary self-parking is available in Mohegan Sun’s three garages and Winter Lot; reserved Riverview Garage parking is also available for purchase
Bag Policy: Backpacks, string bags, diaper bags, shopping bags, messenger bags, briefcases and rolling-style bags are not permitted inside Mohegan Sun Arena
General Information: 1-888-226-7711

More information is available at the Event Website link below.

To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.