Steve Lacy and SZA’s “Is It Cool?” Maps the Distance Between Honesty and Intimacy

Steve Lacy’s new single “Is It Cool?” doesn’t ease into its confessions. Over a sparse, unhurried beat, Lacy admits to cheating almost casually: “I just cheat every now and again / That was hard for me to admit / ’Cause I really want commit.” The delivery is soft, but the words land sharp.

SZA answers not with judgment but with a counter-confession. “Being vulnerable is exhausting, babe / Can we get naked instead of talking, babe?” she sings, trading emotional transparency for physical immediacy. The duet works as a study in mismatched intimacy, two people acknowledging their failures without quite meeting.

The track arrives ahead of Lacy’s third album, Oh Yeah?, out July 17 via RCA Records. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Lacy described the project as a move toward openness. “I feel safe enough and close enough to start talking about it now,” he said. The album, written, performed, and produced entirely by him, follows the Grammy-winning Gemini Rights and was begun almost immediately afterward. The previous single, “Nice Shoes,” hinted at a shift in sound, but “Is It Cool?” suggests that the real pivot is lyrical: a willingness to name the less flattering parts.

Lacy will bring the new material to festival stages across Asia this summer, including Summer Sonic and Lalala. For an artist who once treated songwriting as a private act, the arc toward directness feels deliberate.