Fox Theater

Written, produced, and played pretty much entirely by Steve, Gemini Rights is an incredible leap forward for an artist who has already established himself as a true cultural force. At the ripe old age of 24, Lacy already has a veteran’s resume: Wired Magazine Tech Visionary, Time Magazine Most Influential Teen, Grammy-nominated for his debut album, Apollo XXI, multiple world tours, walked for Virgil Abloh’s first Louis Vuitton show in Paris, gave a TED Talk in NYC, produced a track on Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN (“Pride”) on his iPhone. His list of collaborators is a who’s who of game changing artists, all of whom look to Lacy to bring his signature brand of cool to their sonic table: people like Tyler the Creator, Solange, J.Cole, Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors, Kali Uchis, Thundercat, and Mac Miller, not to mention his guitar, bass, songwriting, and production with his bandmates THE INTERNET. His song “Dark Red,” which he literally made on his iPhone, just went platinum a few months ago as well.

None of this will prepare you for the sprawl and scope of Gemini Rights, however. Like Lacy himself, the record is an amalgamation of a crazy array of references and influences – everything from Caetono Veloso to Andre 3000’s The Love Below to the Beatles to Sly Stone to his friends/band mates in THE INTERNET and much more. Processing his first real heartbreak of his early 20s, Gemini Rights explodes with emotional breadth, with some songs calling out his ex (see: the first lines of album opener “Static” – “Baby you got somethin’ in your nose / sniffin’ that K, did you fill the hole?”) to others fully lamenting the loss (“Buttons”) and bouncing back with indignance (“Sunshine” featuring glorious vocals by Fousheé) and more. It is an album that’s savage, hilarious, tender, sexy, gender fluid, heartbroken, forthright, polyamorous, full of longing, and wears its heart on its sleeve in the best ways possible. Like its title, it is dichotomous but singular, and you will not hear another album like it in 2022.

With Pointy Heights (named after the land her grandfather purchased in Jamaica, with the intention that her whole family could build homes and live there), Fousheé zigs out of the frenetic R&B-punk of her acclaimed previous album, softCORE, as she paints an entirely new sonic palette. Playing the part of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, we enter a world shaped by her home, where old school, indie Reggae, rhythms buoy dance-friendly melodies and a natural cool that makes her the go-to collaborator for today’s biggest artists. The album is a 180 by an artist who makes genres feel like quaint ideas of a bygone era. In Pointy Heights, Fousheé makes an entirely new sound, an effortlessly bold move from an artist who has created one of the most adventurous, melodically resonant records of the year.

Pointy Heights is rich with crackling bass lines, spangly guitar parts, and rollicking, sharp drum sounds, all anchored by the next level songwriting that has defined Fousheé since her first project – time machine – was released three years ago. Her songwriting prowess has made her one of the most sought-after collaborators of the last few years, collaborating with Childish Gambino’s Donald Glover, Steve Lacy, Teezo Touchdown, Lil Yachty, and more.

If her breakthrough hit “Deep End” introduced Fousheé to the world, softCORE brought Fousheé front and center. When it was released, 2022’s softCORE exploded out of nowhere, the equivalent of a sugar high times ten filtered through a redefining of what is expected from female artists; it was met with massive acclaim and excitement and launched Fousheé into her own lane of exceptionalism. Following its release, Fousheé won a Grammy for her work on friend and collaborator Steve Lacy’s breakthrough hit “Bad Habit,” in addition to seeing her open for Lacy throughout the world in the year that followed. Fousheé received love from the likes of Rolling Stone, GQ, Alternative Press, Office Magazine, Variety, HommeGirls, NME, The Guardian, Crack Magazine, and more around softCORE; she played NPR’s Tiny Desk; she sat front row at Paris Fashion Week at shows by Chanel, Givenchy, and more. softCORE basically brought Fousheé to the world and the world to Fousheé.

Ultimately, the path around the globe took her back to Jamaica, where her family is from; a place she had not been to since she was six years old. Fousheé had been in the middle of writing songs for her next project when the trip happened, and it literally changed everything. She scrapped the songs on which she’d been working and started anew, using elements of the music that was literally in her blood to help push her songwriting and sounds forward. The result stands uniquely, brilliantly on its own as an album unlike any other and one of the best records of 2024.