CJ MILES, NBA PLAYER TURNED PHOTOGRAPHER, REVIEWS ERYKAH BADU

CJ Miles, the Dallas native who played for seven NBA teams and now works as a photographer, published his first album review on October 6, and he chose Erykah Badu. His subject is Before the World Blows, her collaborative album with the Alchemist, and he spread the review across 20 slides under the title Origins of Speech, labeled Album Review No. 01.

The First Review Had to Be Badu

Miles explains the pick in his caption. "My first Album review had to be @erykahbadu …had to be the for city," he wrote, tagging it #214Forever, the Dallas area code. Inside the review he calls Badu "our South Dallas queen" and says he has been in love with her music since he was a youngin.

He lived with the record before he wrote a word. The caption lists where it went with him, from lifting weights to the school pick up line, and ends with "So I wrote about it."

The first thing he noticed, he writes, was what he wanted to do afterward. "Write. Pick up my camera. Find a rhythm."

He Hears a Hip Hop Record

Miles writes that what he hears is hip hop, and that it may be the most hip hop album he has heard in a long time. On the Alchemist's side of the record he is specific. "The loops have texture. The drums have dirt on them."

He names his favorites as he goes. "I Know That Man," the track with Earl Sweatshirt, is his favorite song alongside "Echos," and he says he really loves "Crossfade." "No I.D.," with Westside Gunn, might be his favorite beat on the album, and "What The People Say (Apostle 1)" has another one. Of "I Know That Man" he writes, "I'm a church boy. I know that language."

The Camera Is Part of the Review

The slides are laid out like a magazine, with serif type, pull quotes and black and white images. Between the text sit frames of Dallas, including a chain net hoop against the downtown skyline, captioned Downtown Dallas, alongside portraits of Badu and the Alchemist.

His closing slide ties the album back to his own work. "The camera is here. The words are here. The rhythm is here."

The Album He Picked

Before the World Blows came out August 28, 2026, on Control Freaq and Young. It runs 16 tracks, with features from DRAM, Steve Lacy, Thundercat, Westside Gunn, Earl Sweatshirt and Kamasi Washington, and "Witch Doctor" was released as the single on August 13. Miles notes in the review that it arrived sixteen years after her previous studio album, with But You Caint Use My Phone coming out as a mixtape in between.

From Skyline to the League

Miles was a Parade All American at Skyline High School in Dallas, and the Utah Jazz drafted him 34th overall in 2005 straight out of high school. He played for the Jazz, Cavaliers, Pacers, Raptors, Grizzlies, Wizards and Celtics, signing his last NBA deal, a 10 day contract with Boston, in December 2021.

The last line of Review No. 01 reads, "I can feel the dawn approaching. What will I do with the light?"