Future-funk band the Internet are a thinly disguised talent incubator. After frontwoman Syd, their next breakout star is Steve Lacy, not yet 21 – a guitarist-cum-producer from Compton, California, who keeps the funk tight while pursuing a hazy, dreamy bent. He arrived fully formed, joining the Internet for their third album, Ego Death (2015), producing swaths of it even though he was still in high school.
Since then, a slew of guest spots – on Kendrick Lamar’s Damn LP (production), Vampire Weekend’s Sunflower single (guitar), or Louis Vuitton (catwalk modelling) – attest to Lacy’s range. His first solo outing since 2017’s Steve Lacy’s Demo (infamously produced on Garageband and iPhone) freewheels and confides in equal measure.
On this sprawling, often horizontal record, Lacy’s default setting is a blissful Los Angeles funk that bleeds easily into punchier hip-hop passages. Occasionally, he’ll show off his Prince 2.0 soloing skills on songs like Love 2 Fast.
But Lacy has a lot to say as well as play. The key track is Like Me – a dizzying nine-minute three-part tune, in which he sing-raps: “I only feel energy, I see no gender, how many out there just like me?”
