SEARCH FOR: STEVE LACY

It never fails that when I write about an artist from Chicago, I have to highlight just how diverse the talents hailing from this city truly are, and that’s because of musicians like Ravyn Lenae. Whether you’re familiar with her as an individual or her work with Smino and Monte Booker within their group Zero Fatigue, you know just how skillful she truly is, and that’s never something I could forget for even a second. She has been on the scene for a minute, and this has led to working with artists including Mick Jenkins, Noname, and plenty of others as well as joining Noname for a tour before opening for SZA the following year. Throughout this time, she has even accumulated countless nods and co-signs from other artists and publications, all of which have helped highlight her very unique and awe-inspiring skillset. Although cohesive projects haven’t been as readily available over the past couple of years, that doesn’t mean that Ravyn is taking it easy, because her brand-new single “Skin Tight” featuring Steve Lacy is something that immediately caught my attention, and I simply can’t stop listening to it. This song is definitely not meant for the club, but …

2021 has very much been an up and down year for most, but it’s undeniably been a phenomenal year for music. In fact, I enjoyed listening to so many releases that I’d forgotten some even released this year. Not only has there been plenty of stylistic/genre variety, but also artists of all types (small, emerging, mainstream) actively releasing their art. To showcase my appreciation, I decided to put together a list of my favorite projects; (in no particular order) all of which remain in my rotation heading into the new year. I hope you discover an album, EP or mixtape that you might have missed! Last but not least, this list is also a token of gratitude to each and every person that has read a Lyrical Lemonade piece of mine. I wish you a happy and fulfilling New Year. – – – – – Issa Gold: Tempus (album) Genres: Introspective hip-hop, Conscious rap Favorite track: Cold Summer   Amaria – Bittersweet (EP) Genres: R&B Favorite track: Lose Control   Richie Quake – Voyager (EP) Genres: R&B, Indie Favorite Track: Sensitive   Jean Deaux – Most Wanted (EP) Genres: Hip-Hop, Modern R&B, Electro-Trap Favorite track: Stay Down Marlon Craft – How We Intended (album) Genres: Hip-Hop, Jazz …

Babyxsosa – being the infectious, oddball personality that she is – has developed one of the weirdest, most exciting come-up stories over the past year that I’ve heard in some time. Arising from her local Virginia scene with the anthemic “EVERYWHEREIGO”  at the start of 2019, Sosa quickly became a hot topic of conversation outside of her home city via SoundCloud last year, and stapled her presence with early cosigns from names including Kali Uchis, Steve Lacy, and Clairo along the way. In the months following, even as she began to receive attention from several weighted names in music, Sosa decided to lean further into her underground presence, building a thrilling foundation of support specifically in New York, where she grew to work with one of the leading crews in the community, Surf Gang. Fast-forward to the present, and Sosa is at a striking balance-point of big-name attention and a sacred spot in music’s underground. Choosing to bypass overnight-success-via-cosign, she’s added a strong leg of foundation to a story executed entirely on her own terms, and now, seems ready to reach new heights by pairing up with an artist of similar balance between underground ubiquity and mainstream attention: Queens native …

The day that I have personally been waiting for, for what seems like ages, has finally come. Of course, the event I’m talking about is the highly anticipated release of Thundercat’s fourth studio album entitled It is What it is. I’ve been paying extremely close attention to all the moves he’s been making leading up to this release and I’ve even written up most of the singles he dropped prior to the entire project, so I was waiting with bated breath for some time now. Considering I’ve always been a massive fan of his hyper-charged bass skills mixed with his ability to incorporate all different genres of music into one fully encompassed genre of his own, I was expecting nothing short of amazing from this album. I believe he totally delivered on this record for multiple reasons. He had fun with certain themes on fun-loving songs while diving deeper into more personal issues he has dealt with on others, always demonstrating his immense talent on the bass guitar. His emotions are in full effect, sometimes being portrayed in a lighthearted manner as if he’s laughing at how crazy he can get about someone he loves, while other times truly putting …

Thundercat is a one-off talent and pretty much the only artist in today’s music industry single-handedly keeping the funk genre alive and well. He does this of course with his own spin on the genre, but also bridges multiple generations and other genres together to create straight-up masterpieces. With the announcement of It is What it is, the follow up to his 2017 album Drunk, releasing on April 3rd, he decided to bless fans with a new single off of the upcoming project. “Black Qualls” sounds like it time-traveled straight out of the 70’s or 80’s with its overtly funk and even psychedelic vibe. The dense bass strums bring a specific groove to the single as other synths and harmonies bring the track to a whole new dimension. It starts out relatively quickly before slowing down, seemingly bridging the different paces together as the song picks up once again. Both Steve Lacy and Steve Arrington have opposing pitches, one being more tenor and the other more of a bass, but they accent each other through their differences immaculately. It’s also incredible to see new school and classic funk come together in one place, and even though the various styles are …

Post By: Lee Mcintosh Although Hip-Hop/Rap is amongst the most popular and impactful genre of music in the world, R&B is not that far behind. There are lots of Rap artists who teeter the lines of Rap and R&B–whether that be from the composition of the music, the lyrical content, or even just the way the lyrics soothe over the track. Ever so often, it can be difficult to decipher if an artist is in fact a rapper or a singer. Artists such as Bryson Tiller, 6LACK and Sy Ari Da Kid are amongst the best to master the art of both genres. Singing over rap beats, or rapping over singing beats–that just shows the amount of influence that R&B has on the culture today. Often so, Hip-Hop delivers a new wave of emerging artists every few years or so. The R&B world once did not operate on that fast of a time schedule–usually only bringing in the new “it” singer every 5 years or so. In the new digital/social media era, the rate at which new R&B artists transpire is almost as often as the rappers. Here at Lyrical Lemonade, we are most known for our coverage in Hip-Hop, …

If you’ve read any of my writing over the past few months, it’d be no secret that I am a big fan of the music coming out of Houston, Texas. With such a deep history of producing some of the genre’s most unique talent, they always seem to be new artists popping up all time that redefine the culture in a major way. An artist that fits that description perfectly is Young Deji, the creator of The Woah. His music might not be what you expect with that on his resume, he has an insanely smooth voice that is able to create both iconic R&B and intricate wordplay. Young Deji released his sophomore project Genesis the other week, the Houston artist has truly leveled up in terms of sound. This project is the perfect evolution from his FunPlex mixtape that dropped earlier this year. From the intro track “Sar”, Deji’s soulful sound can almost be compared to Steve Lacy with a heavy 808. Wiz Khalifa has heavily cosigned Deji, appearing on four out of twelve tracks on the project. Finding talented voices like Ty$, its no surprise Wiz would tap into Deji’s massive potential. Deji also shows his ability to switch things up and spit …

Steve Lacy is one of those rare artists who can seemingly do no wrong. Generated, in many cases, with resourceful use of the GarageBand app on his phone, his style has become adored by the masses thanks to pure authenticity and a sense of unwavering passion, just as we see in the rising star’s most recent return to the spotlight, “N Side.” Painting a vivid picture of the thoughts and occurrences, both physical and mental, that come with falling in love, this offering uses a soul-stricken guitar riff to complement Lacy’s alluring supply of vocals. Once the twang of the bassline is added in and the instrumental picks up steam with an otherworldly synth line, it becomes clear why “N Side” is such a can’t-miss release and further, why Steve Lacy is becoming a bona fide star all on his own terms. That said, this is the perfect release to come just in time for the warm weather, so throw this one on repeat and sing along with the karaoke version below!

While Chicago has been known as a reputable city in hip-hop for numerous years now, this revered position has not arrived without the constant innovation and hard work of the artists that so faithfully represent the prowess of their home city. It is these artists that we have to credit for this respected reputation, and we here at Lyrical Lemonade try to honor this in every way possible by constantly bringing new Chicago acts into our headlines here on our website. That said, 2018 has been yet another fantastic year for Chicago music, so we went ahead and compiled a list of our “Top 50 Chicago Projects” of the year. This now marks the third year that we have been putting out this list, and we believe that it’s safe to say this year’s list might just be the most solid one from top to bottom that we’ve seen yet. Thank you to our terrific writing staff for all of the hard work they have put in this year, I will be linking their socials below so be sure to contact them about getting featured on the website in the future. Seamus Fay • Mike Del Ro • Sam Morrison • …

It’s always dope to see an artist deliver a live version that rivals the recorded version of a song, and Ravyn Lenae did just that for her feature on COLORS Studios—a German music platform known for their stripped down music performances. Offering a rendition of her lead single “Sticky” produced by Steve Lacy, Ravyn absolutely killed this performance and really put her vocal abilities on full display for viewers who might have been unfamiliar. The set is refreshingly simple, and while it takes an impressive level of performance chops to hold a viewers attention with nothing else but a microphone, Ravyn immediately locks you in the moment she starts singing. Watch Ravyn Lenae hits some unreal high notes below, and if you haven’t yet, be sure to peep her latest “Crush” EP.