Nothing in “Bad Habit,” from the trembling reach of his high notes to the very particular thwack of a snare drum, is tossed off. “We were just riffing and writing funny lines, making up phrases that sound ridiculous.”Īs low-key as he makes his writing sessions sound, Lacy is an absolutely meticulous producer. I just knew that it was relatable and it was a funny story,” Lacy said. “I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it being a hit or anything. It doesn’t scream “hit single” at first, but Lacy’s sly ambiguity across genre and desire spoke to millions of Gen Z fans. It’s got the stacked falsettos and plaintive vocal runs of ‘70s R&B, but its chiming guitar chords recall the Cure, and the track closes with a left-field jazz-fusion breakdown. The song both rocks and smolders, and it fits across many genres of streaming playlists. “I turn it on, I make it rowdy … You grabbin’ me hard ‘cause you know what you found … Let’s f- in the back of the mall, lose control.” The single has a relatable, meme-primed hook about lovesick regret: “I wish I knew you wanted me … I bite my tongue, it’s a bad habit / Kinda mad that I didn’t take a stab at it.”īut by the end, Lacy’s making up for lost time. The song has 275 million plays on Spotify and yielded nearly 500,000 fan videos on TikTok, culminating in hundreds of millions of views.
The fact that one song can be recognized as so many things, that’s kind of the point.”īut “Bad Habit” changed his life forever.
I never considered myself to be R&B or hip-hop or rock, but I am influenced by all these things. “I didn’t have to conform to anything, I can just live in whatever space I want. “It’s cool, right?” Lacy said as he kicked back into a leather booth before a wall of color-changing LEDs.
It was the first time that a song had ruled all five charts in Billboard history, no less at the same time. The 24-year-old, Compton-raised singer-songwriter, dressed in a flowy trench coat, shoulder-length braids and imposing full-face sunglasses, had just learned that “Bad Habit,” his bummed-out yet deliriously horny TikTok viral hit turned Billboard Hot 100 smash, had simultaneously topped five different hip-hop/R&B and alternative rock charts (for the record: Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot R&B Songs, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs and Hot Alternative Songs charts.) In September, Steve Lacy sauntered into the glassy upstairs lounge at the Novo in downtown L.A.
0 kommentar(er)
