Digital Media Concepts/Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. He plays a variety of instruments, but is best known for his skills on the guitar. Steve Lacy has been praised for his unique blending of genres and sounds, and has become an influential figure in contemporary R&B and alternative music. His rise to fame started when he joined and produced for the band, '' The Internet”, which has received critical acclaim for multiple albums. Steve Lacy is also an activist for the LQBTQ community, and has been open about his queer identity in his music.

Early Life
Steve Thomas Lacy-Moya was born in Compton, California on May 23, 1998. Lacy's mother was a gospel singer and his father was a bassist, leading to Lacy's passion for music at a young age. Lacy started playing guitar at the age of seven and would then join his high school’s jazz band.

Career
When Lacy was a freshman in high school, he met a friend named Jameel Bruner, who introduced Lacy to the band, The Internet. He would begin to produce beats and play guitar for the band. Later, Lacy helped produce The Internet’s 2015 album, “Ego Death”. A year after the album was nominated at the Grammy Awards for “Best Urban Contemporary Album”. Lacy was 16 years old at the time. Notably, Steve Lacy was known for creating sought-after beats on his Iphone 6. Using a device called an Irig, Lacy would play his guitar into his phone, and use apps such as GarageBand to create beats.

Collaborations
When he was 17, Steve Lacy had produced for the albums "DAMN." by Kendrick Lamar and "4 Your Eyez Only" by J.Cole. Since 2016, Lacy has continued to collaborate with a variety of musical artists including Blood Orange, YG, Solange, Kanye West, Tyler, the Creator, Isaiah Rashad, Mac Miller, Denzel Curry, and GoldLink. Steve Lacy had released singles in 2015-2017 including “Dark Red”, which now has over a billion streams on Spotify. He released his debut EP in 2017, called, “Steve Lacy’s Demo”. He then released “Apollo XXI” in 2019, which was nominated “Best Urban Contemporary Album” in 2020.

Gemini Rights
In 2022, Lacy released the album “Gemini Rights” which included the single, “Bad Habit”. The single hit no. 1 on Billboard’s top 100 and had over 470,000 videos made to the song on the app TikTok. The song now holds 900 million streams and was nominated “Song of the Year”, “Best Pop Solo Performance”, and “Record of the Year”. “Gemini Rights” won “Best Progressive R&B Album”. The single “Bad Habit” and album “Gemini Rights” pushed Steve Lacy’s fame and popularity, making him more well-known to the public.