Steve Lacy has spent the better part of the past decade blurring the lines between R&B, indie rock and pop, but on his new SZA-featuring single “is it cool?,” he’s doing something even riskier: telling the truth.
Out now via RCA Records, the song is the latest preview of Lacy’s upcoming album Oh yeah?, due July 17, and finds two of contemporary music’s top voices unpacking the messy realities of intimacy, vulnerability and self-sabotage.
The collaboration has been brewing for months. Fans have speculated ever since Lacy and SZA were spotted in the studio together earlier this year, and “is it cool?” delivers on the promise. Over a fluid arrangement that feels equally indebted to bedroom soul and confessional singer/songwriter traditions, Lacy confronts his own shortcomings with disarming candor: “I just cheat every now and again / That was hard for me to admit / ‘Cause I really want to commit.” SZA counters with a line that feels destined for social media captions and therapy sessions alike: “Being vulnerable is exhausting, babe / Can we get naked instead of talking, babe?”
The song offers another glimpse into what Lacy has described as his most personal project to date. Written, produced and largely performed by the artist himself, Oh yeah? emerged from a four-year period during which the artist found himself feeling more at home abroad than in his own surroundings. Lead single “the feeling” hinted at that those emotions, while the newly revealed track list offers an adventurous cast of collaborators, including Erykah Badu on “pure colour” and experimental pop artist Cecile Believe on “lovesexdrugbomb.”
Lacy, 28, has already won two Grammys and has two entries in Spotify’s Billions Club. Described as music “for guitar kids who love synths and synth kids who love guitars,” the new album is the follow-up to 2022’s Gemini Rights, which launched the worldwide smash “Bad Habit.”
Lacy will support Oh yeah? with a run of Asian dates beginning Aug. 13 in Tokyo, including headlining appearances at Summer Sonic in Japan and Lalala Festival in Manila and Jakarta. These will be his first shows since early 2024.
