{"id":2514672,"date":"2026-07-23T21:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2514672"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:04:54","slug":"after-bad-habit-steve-lacy-could-do-anything-genius-new-album-yep-monogamy-never","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/after-bad-habit-steve-lacy-could-do-anything-genius-new-album-yep-monogamy-never\/","title":{"rendered":"After ‘Bad Habit,’ Steve Lacy could do anything. Genius new album? Yep. Monogamy? Never."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cOh \u2014 . That\u2019s Steve Lacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two streetwear-dripped-out dudes on the patio of Verve Coffee nearly spit out their matchas on a recent Monday afternoon in West Hollywood, when the singer-songwriter Lacy walked up to order an iced tea.<\/p>\n

Dressed in svelte black athleisure with a close-cropped haircut, the 28-year-old Lacy was less flamboyant than he\u2019d looked in recent years, when he sported long braids and sunglasses that covered half his head. Only a mint green handbag and full sleeves of tattoos suggested that Gen Z\u2019s reigning rock star had settled in to talk about his new album \u201cOh Yeah?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lacy is much more famous now than he was in 2022 when he released \u201cBad Habit,\u201d a defining lo-fi pop song of the post-pandemic era that topped the Hot 100, earned Grammy nominations for record and song and changed his life forever. Now the Compton-reared Lacy can\u2019t go anywhere in L.A. without shifting the center of gravity in a room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s funny to think about,\u201d Lacy said, when asked if he enjoys being pointed-at-in-coffee-shops-caliber famous. \u201cI\u2019m not about to call a restaurant and be like, \u2018Hey, yo, it\u2019s Steve Lacy.\u2019 But when my assistant books it, then I\u2019m like, \u2018Whoa, we got this table.\u2019 Maybe my name is more famous than me. It can be annoying, but it\u2019s been very calm right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh Yeah?\u201d is an artful, side-eyed smirk at the pleasures and melancholy of stardom, from an artist who has remade rock and R&B for the bi-panic era. Over 10 crisp songs, Lacy asks if love is possible when your options are infinite. <\/p>\n

When Lacy toured his last album \u201cGemini Rights\u201d in 2022, a fan in New Orleans threw a camera at him mid-show. It bothered Lacy, a serious artist who wrote with Kendrick Lamar and earned a Grammy nomination as a teenager in the R&B collective The Internet, suddenly thrust into living meme territory with \u201cBad Habit.\u201d He smashed the camera onstage.<\/p>\n

Lacy laughs about it now, as a consequence of just how haywire that time was \u2014 for him, and everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore that, it was just music nerds at the show, or a cool intellectual thing. The music then invited a more youthful crowd, and I had to get used to how they do things,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cIt was also a lot of kids\u2019 first times at shows, they didn\u2019t have etiquette. A lot of these kids don\u2019t know how to … act, but I ended up enjoying their rowdiness. I do demand a certain seriousness, but I\u2019m learning from them, and they\u2019re learning from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he wrote the follow-up to the smash \u201cGemini Rights,\u201d he had to adapt to a new tier of fame while not losing that \u201ccool intellectual thing,\u201d which imbued his songwriting with the Brazilian jazz chords of Jo\u00e3o Gilberto and the psychedelic soul of Erykah Badu<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Steve Lacy photographed at the Novo on Sept. 9, 2022, in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

(Kayla James \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

He bought a flagship Jupiter 8 keyboard, but didn\u2019t end up using it much; he could afford to be \u201cindulgent, just buying random stupid [stuff] like new instruments or clothes or cars,\u201d he said. \u201c I was just having fun, enjoying what I had worked for. I had moments where I was like, \u2018This is gonna be great.\u2019 And God or whatever higher power was like, \u2018Now, now.\u2019 A lot of this album was a practice of \u2018Sit … down.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Lacy doesn\u2019t come off as someone overly concerned with doing big numbers, or pandering to a newfound pop audience. But the expectations after a year-defining hit were real, if subtly disorienting. \u201cI think it wigged me out subconsciously,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI made an anthem. That song took me into spaces and territories that I never imagined, and so I think I felt ill prepared. But I see that song as a teacher to me. I think it\u2019s … awesome I went No. 1, but I wasn\u2019t in my mind like \u2018We need to be in studio making hits.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The songs that emerged revealed new textures in his arrangements and a sweeping genre range, yet also his most deliciously crass humor. He deadpans through a drum and bass club banger on \u201cNice Shoes \/ In Your World,\u201d and finally nails the analog-synth richness of his beloved Stereolab on the bleary, lovelorn single \u201cThe Feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPure Colour\u201d could be the backdrop to an ego-destroying acid trip, all blown out reverbs and trip-hop drums with Badu herself as an angel cooing from the abyss. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of this submission to darkness that comes with grieving and missing someone,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cI\u2019ve grown up with lots of death. Cousins, my father, aunts, my grandmother. I\u2019m grieving all of these people, but I think they visit you. The tone of that song is like \u2018I\u2019m tired of feeling it right now. I want to smoke a joint. I need to get outside of myself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The album revels in baser instincts too, almost in defiance of the sweetly bashful \u201cBad Habit.\u201d \u201cIs It Cool?,\u201d a character study of an incorrigible cheater, sports one of his most villainous choruses \u2014 \u201cYou ain\u2019t got to trust me to love me, babe.\u201d Then SZA chimes in to say she knows exactly what she\u2019s getting involved in \u2014 \u201cBeing vulnerable is exhausting, babe \/ Can we get naked instead of talking?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone hears that line and they\u2019ll be like \u2018Cut that … off. This dude\u2019s … an idiot,\u201c Lacy said. \u201cIt goes against everything that love is to everyone. But there\u2019s also deep insecurity. That dude is deeply miserable. Nothing will satisfy him. The cheater is just as insecure, if not more, than the person who\u2019s scared to get cheated on. It\u2019s kind of like admitting it, so I could get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Steve Lacy was a winner at the 65th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 5, 2023. <\/p>\n

(Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

The album is also pull-off-the-road-level funny. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much laughter. Even on those days we were pulling hair out, we were laughing so loud,\u201d Lacy said of his studio sessions. <\/p>\n

Does it matter if the LP does numbers like \u201cGemini Rights?\u201d Of course Lacy wants \u201cOh Yeah?\u201d to be a hit, but he\u2019s at peace with what will likely happen \u2014 an album that improves upon and broadens his artistic ambitions, and locks in his core fan base for the next phase of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older you get, all your accomplishments are the same size,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cMy phone being in the Smithsonian<\/a>, going No. 1, being Grammy nominated as a teenager, if you look at them on the wall, they\u2019re all kind of huge. But as time goes, big things happen and then it\u2019s over. I can\u2019t make my success a personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, he has been returning home in a sense. Lacy still lives in L.A., though he recorded a chunk of the LP in Paris and has modeled for the luxury line YSL there. For the album\u2019s release, he threw a listening party at the visual artist Lauren Halsey\u2019s \u201cSister Dreamer\u201d sculpture garden, a future-classical fantasia of Black mythmaking just few blocks away from SoFi Stadium and Kia Forum, but closer in spirit to his native Compton. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s been jamming with The Internet again, his collective with childhood friends Syd and Matt Martians, who emerged from the Odd Future nexus to become a pacesetting act for young R&B and hip-hop fans. Lacy expects new music from the full band sooner or later. \u201cIt\u2019s a family. We all just love hanging out together, it\u2019s just so funny and even after we go solo, we just have this baby together,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here without that experience \u2014 they taught me how to do this, how to treat people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the most ambitious, genre-slippery rock stars of his era, Lacy can do anything he wants in music. Intimacy in his own life, however, is an open question.<\/p>\n

Lacy, who is famously fluid in his sexuality and laughs off any attempt to define it, peppers his songs with dreams of men and women, of wanting each yet leaving everyone. He does want some kind of family someday, if on his terms.<\/p>\n

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\"Steve <\/picture>\n
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Steve Lacy photographed at the Novo on Sept. 9, 2022, in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

(Kayla James \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cI definitely see myself as a father. I don\u2019t see myself, like, with a husband or a wife,\u201d he said. \u201cI definitely do want a family, but I don\u2019t know about marriage and monogamy … .\u201d <\/p>\n

Fans have gleefully speculated about his recent dating life, after posting a photo of a notably comfy embrace with the singer Omar Apollo, with the pithy caption \u201cHoes Mad.\u201d Lacy laughed and put his head in his hands when asked about the picture. He declined to elaborate on their relationship, but encouraged everyone to kiss their pals, of all genders, with the vigor of an artist who is finally, truly, free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just in my body, bro. I kiss all my friends. I\u2019m just having fun,\u201d Lacy said. \u201cThere\u2019s photos from YSL parties where I\u2019m making out with everyone. That\u2019s just what I do. Make out with your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n