Steve Lacy’s Nice Shoes is not just a comeback single. It sets the tone for his next chapter.
Released on August 15, 2025 via RCA Records, the track marks his first new music in three years and serves as the lead single for his forthcoming third album, Oh Yeah?.
Written and produced by Lacy, with additional input from James Brown and Matthew Castellanos, it arrives with a minimalistic lyric video and a merch drop tied to the album’s artwork.
At just over three minutes, Nice Shoes opens with a sharp, skittering breakbeat and synth lines rooted in jungle and drum & bass rather than his usual neo-soul guitar landscapes.
Lacy’s delivery shifts between deadpan spoken lines and melodic hooks, echoing the punk-adjacent monotone.
The chorus, “If I had a dollar for the friends I would fuck, I could buy a pair of really nice shoes,” is equal parts absurdist and pointed, flipping casual lust into a wry commentary on intimacy and value.
Nice Shoes isn’t just about lust or style; it’s about how people package and measure connection, often masking emotional truths with jokes, bravado, or style references.
Thematically, the song’s contrasts are its anchor. Lines like “Life is but a stain, it’s not a tattoo” and “Crazy how you could be sad and not notice” thread fleeting pleasure with an undercurrent of melancholy.
There is a restless, almost nihilistic shrug in “All I need is my guitar and serotonin,” but it is punctured by playful asides and Lacy’s self-described fixation on “romantic boners.”
The music mirrors that duality. Moments of neo-soul warmth in the chorus break up the track’s restless, percussive base, and in the final minute, the beat slows into a muted electric guitar interlude before snapping back to its original tempo.
Reception has been split. Some fans praised the stylistic risk and hypnotic groove, others dismissed the hook as beneath his capabilities.
Comparisons popped up to Kevin Abstract’s Blush era, Baron Zen’s lo-fi charm, and ’70s punk vocal affectation.
Even detractors acknowledged the track’s “ethereal” beat and how it feels intentionally loose, almost tossed off, as if testing the audience before the full album drops.
Lacy has framed Nice Shoes as a “trailer” for what is next. In a Rolling Stone interview, he described Oh Yeah? as the product of careful “design,” aiming to build a new creative language for himself.
That makes the single’s mix of provocation, humour, and understated sadness feel less like a misstep and more like an opening gambit, an invitation to step into his next phase on his terms.
Whether Nice Shoes becomes a streaming hit or remains a cult-favorite bridge between albums, it has already succeeded in sparking conversation.
Lacy’s return is not about replicating Gemini Rights viral magic. It is about testing who will stay engaged when he shifts styles and challenges the expectations set by his past work.
And judging by the noise it has made in just its first days, plenty of people are.
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Steve Lacy’s Nice Shoes Lyrics
Verse 1
If I, if I had a dollar for the friends I would fuck
I could buy a pair of really nice shoes
Life is but a stain, it’s not a tattoo
Temporary pain, it’s lame to chase youth
I can’t seem to fall in love, it’s bad luck
Careful how you spend your time, it adds up
If it was a problem I was not solving
Does it even matter? We are not fucking
Crazy, how you could be sad and not notice
All I need is my guitar and serotonin
Even when I clear my head to make room
Still feel claustrophobia, I can’t move
Can you make it stop?
Chorus
Make it, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop
Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop
Make it stop
Verse 2
My dick is getting hard again
At the thought of you and me holding hands
We’re dancing close and all your friends, wanna see
Let’s go before the party ends
I ain’t tryna hear another, “How you been?”
I’m choking on a gust of wind, what’s in the air?
Chorus
(Make it stop)
Make it, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop (Make it stop)
Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop (Make it stop)
Make it stop (Make it stop, make it stop)
Make it, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop (Make it stop)
Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop (Make it stop)
Make it stop (Make it stop, make it)
Bridge
I truly think if there was ever a time to let it out, it would be now
Let down your guard and be honest enough to let it out, I’m in your world
Outro
(Make it stop)
Make it stop, make it
Make it stop, make it (Stop)
Make it stop, make it
