During a new interview with Fantastic Man, Steve Lacy revealed he’s working on his upcoming album. He also spoke about who he wanted to feature on the project, another Compton native, Kendrick Lamar. This upcoming project is a follow-up to Lacy’s 2022 album, Gemini Rights. While he considers himself selective with collaborations, he says, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want a Kendrick verse.”
Steve Lacy had recently made a cameo in the video for Lamar’s mega-hit, “Not Like Us.” He also “popped out” for Kendrick’s Juneteenth event at the Kia Forum. As an openly queer man, Lacy admitted he felt uncomfortable at first but eventually settled in fine. “I was the only fairy-type person in this room full of rap, hard rap music, I feel like a fairy, I don’t feel hard, [and] I don’t feel tough. We were at the run-through, and I was, like, ‘How am I here?’ But I was so honoured. Compton has this rep of being hard. I thought I would never be in the conversation. It was cool.”
Steve Lacy Talks Family & Early Childhood
The former Internet guitarist also opened up about his early childhood. He is thankful for his sisters who expanded his horizons with their “feminine sensibility.” Lacy also is grateful to his mother that he “grew up in the house,” and wasn’t caught up in trouble. “I’m a kid who was raised in the hood, whose mother wouldn’t let him do hoodrat shit like be outside,” he told the outlet. “A lot of things I wish I had done, that my mom kept me from, I’m grateful for. I’m grateful for growing up in Compton…I’m grateful for the limitations that I had…I’m grateful for the things I couldn’t get.”
Lacy also speaks on the status of the relationship with his mother. While they are still close, he has learned to have more of an opinion for himself. “I’m an adult now and I’m forming my own thoughts and beliefs and wanting certain things to be understood by her,” he says. “And moms are hard in that way. I’m her only son, so I have that bond with her. Moms and their daughters are different. I feel for [my sisters].”