Steve Lacy doesn’t care if you’re listening to ‘Oh yeah?’

Four years is a long time to go quiet after an artist’s biggest hit takes over the radio. Steve Lacy could have repackaged 2022’s viral sensation, “Bad Habit,” dressed differently. Instead, on Oh yeah?, Lacy’s third album, he made music that sounds less interested in another Grammy and more in getting something off his chest.

Rather than capitalizing on his momentum, Lacy spent the last four years writing and producing this 10-track album himself, which he released on July 17. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Lacy said Oh yeah? was “one of the hardest albums to make.” His dedication results in authentic and personal lyrics. 

Lacy’s patience echoes audibly. No part of the album feels rushed towards a hook or a chorus fans will sing back at a concert. The songs unfold at their own pace, sometimes uncomfortably, like they are pages out of Lacy’s diary.

For example, Lacy confronts his commitment issues rooted in familial trauma in “is it cool?” featuring SZA, singing “Never needed a man / Tatay died when I was like ten.” Tatay, a Filipino nickname for father, proves exemplary of Lacy’s confessional narrative throughout Oh yeah?. Later in the album, he turns the knife on his own family in “pure colour” featuring Texas native Erykah Badu.  

“My family thinks I’ll be my father / They don’t know shit,” Lacy sings.

While he maintains a personal tone lyrically, Lacy’s musical style spans multiple genres, even within individual songs. In the nine-minute track “nice shoes / in your world,” Lacy cohesively weaves together seemingly opposite sounds. From breakbeat electronica to psychedelic soul, this song and many others embody Lacy’s defiance against traditional genre convention. It’s clear his sound moves the same way his feelings do — without warning or apology.

That same restlessness doesn’t always serve his lyrics. Though Lacy’s genre-hopping feels intentional, his lyrics feel closer to unedited. He sings poetic lines, then abandons them for shock value in the same breath, resulting in a jarring transition for listeners. 

In “show you me,” Lacy sings a beautifully-crafted metaphor with the lyrics “Had to cry a river just to find the fish in the sea,” which depicts his longing, then bluntly follows it with an explicit line. It’s messy but also the kind of writing Lacy unapologetically refuses to clean up. 

Oh yeah? is better in some places for Lacy’s rawness, but rougher in others. That feels like the point of this album — the tradeoff for a collection of songs that wastes no time trying to be relatable. Whether a confession, diary entry or Steve Lacy finally sharing what’s been on his mind since 2022, listeners know he didn’t hold back. 

In “nice shoes / in your world,” Lacy sings, “So many people I wish could hear this album / Yeah / But, I know they hear it.” That’s the trick to Oh yeah?. It’s an album that insists its creation carried no intention to be heard by an audience, but makes sure of it anyway.

4 nice shoes out of 5

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