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Universal Beings

2018 studio album by Makaya McCraven

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ97549032
Source-derived summary

Universal Beings is a studio album by American drummer, composer, and record producer Makaya McCraven. It was released on October 26, 2018, through International Anthem Recording Company. It received universal acclaim from critics.

Background

Makaya McCraven is an American drummer, composer, and record producer based in Chicago. Universal Beings is a double album, containing 22 tracks. It was recorded in New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles. It contains performances by McCraven, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, Dezron Douglas, Tomeka Reid, Shabaka Hutchings, Junius Paul, Nubya Garcia, Ashley Henry, Daniel Casimir, Josh Johnson, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jeff Parker, Anna Butterss, and Carlos Niño. It was released on October 26, 2018, through International Anthem Recording Company.

McCraven later released a companion album to Universal Beings, titled Universal Beings E&F Sides, in 2020. It contains 14 tracks recorded during the original album sessions.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Universal Beings” is 2018 studio album by Makaya McCraven. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Universal, Beings and studio, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018, 2020—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2018-10-24. For this dossier, Universal, Beings and studio is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2018 studio album by Makaya McCraven” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97549032. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2018 and 2020.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Universal Beings”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Universal Beings primary sources, Universal Beings archive and Universal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Universal Beings”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Universal Beings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.