About the Song:
Singer/songwriter Steve Lacy was born in 1998 in Compton, California. He started playing guitar at seven years old. He was the guitarist for the neo-soul group the Internet before self-producing his solo debut EP, Steve La’y's Demo, in 2017. He then worked with artists such as Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator and co-wrote songs for Kendrick, Lamar, Solange Knowles, and others.
His first full-length studio album, Apollo XXI, appeared in 2019 and was followed in 2022 with Gemini Rights. The latter was a top-ten album, thanks to the success of “Bad Habit,” the album’s second single, but first chart entry. The song went viral on TikTok with snippets from the song used on more than 400,000 videos and went on to top the Billboard Hot 100.
“Bad Habit” was the first song to simultaneously top the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart simultaneously. It also earned Lacy Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year. Billboard critics named it their favorite song of 2022, saying it “has a casualness to its liquid grooves and ping-ponging vocals that almost makes it feel tossed off, spontaneous. But the craft on display here is actually impossibly high-level.” SF
Lacy’s “bad habit” is biting his tongue; that is, being too shy to speak up about how he feels about someone who likes him. However, “towards the end of the song, this person gives him a second chance, and by the outro they get to explore their mutual attraction.” SF Stereogum’s Tom Breihan said the song was a “lo-fi, homespun take on the kind of thing that Prince might’ve once written.” WK
Resources:
First posted 1/12/2023; last updated 10/15/2024.
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