What Are Steve Lacy's "RYD" and "Dark Red" About?

"RYD" and "Dark Red" are the second and third tracks on Steve Lacy's Demo, his 2017 solo debut, and one video covers both. "RYD" is an invitation to take a drive. "Dark Red" is about sensing a breakup coming and wanting to fix things first.

Stream Steve Lacy's Demo: awal.lnk.to/SLDemo

What is "RYD" about?

"RYD" is short and flirtatious. Lacy asks someone to get in the car and ride with him, and the song is over almost as soon as the offer is made. At about two minutes and twenty seconds, it plays like a sketch, which fits a project Lacy described as a song series rather than a finished EP.

What is "Dark Red" about?

"Dark Red" is the heavier half. The narrator has a bad feeling about his relationship and pleads to work it out before it ends. Reviewers have called it a "we can work it out" song with dread underneath, and the bright guitar riff makes that anxiety easy to miss on first listen.

What happens in the "RYD / Dark Red" video?

Instead of making two separate clips, Lacy stitched both songs into one video. The look is spare and carefully staged. When Dallas station KXT featured it in December 2017, the host compared its sparse, specific backdrops to a Wes Anderson film, a style that matches how stripped-down the songs are.

How Steve Lacy made them

Lacy wrote, produced and recorded "Dark Red" on his iPhone in GarageBand. For Steve Lacy's Demo, he played the guitar and bass parts, sang straight into the phone's built-in microphone and programmed drums in Ableton. The project came out in February 2017, while he was still best known as the young guitarist in the Internet. Pitchfork called it "startlingly mature."

How "Dark Red" became a hit

"Dark Red" was reissued as a single on April 4, 2019, and turned into a sleeper hit years later after it took off on TikTok in 2021. It reached No. 78 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is certified platinum in the United States and the United Kingdom, and triple platinum in New Zealand.

Quick answers

What project are "RYD" and "Dark Red" on? Steve Lacy's Demo (2017).

Is there one video for both songs? Yes. "RYD / Dark Red" combines them.

What genre is "Dark Red"? Alternative R&B with neo soul and funk.

Did Steve Lacy really record it on a phone? Yes, in GarageBand on an iPhone.

How high did "Dark Red" chart? No. 78 on the Billboard Hot 100.