Syd

A crucial figure in the Los Angeles music scene since her affiliation with Odd Future, Syd is known foremost as the frontperson of soul-rooted alternative R&B band the Internet. In addition to her extensive work with that Grammy-nominated group, she has issued the solo albums Fin (2017) and Broken Hearts Club (2022) and an assortment of singles and EPs. These recordings have tended to be even more frank, conversational, and slow jam-oriented than the Internet’s output, magnifying Syd’s softly sung — and at times brazen — narratives about love and lust.
During her teenage years, lifelong L.A. native Syd (born Sydney Loren Bennett) built a home studio, developed her engineering skills, and began producing material for a host of Odd Future and related projects. As Syd continued to be a go-to OF collaborator — she recorded and mixed the entirety of Tyler, The Creator’s Goblin, for instance — she established the Internet, who released an album every other year from 2011 through 2015. Ego Death, the last of the band’s first three LPs through major label Columbia, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Urban Contemporary Album.
With a Columbia deal of her own, Syd made her solo debut in 2017 with Fin, an album that drew from mid- to late ’90s recordings by the likes of Brandy and Aaliyah. Always Never Home, a supplemental three-track EP, was out later in the year. After the fourth Internet album, Hive Mind, landed in 2018, Syd appeared on the soundtrack for Queen & Slim (“Getting Late”). Between solo releases, Syd’s extensive secondary discography of side collaborations grew with featured roles on songs by Free Nationals (“Shibuya”), Lil Uzi Vert (“Urgency”), and Disclosure (“Birthday”) as well as ZAYN (“When Love’s Around”) and Brittany Howard (“Baby”), among others. Syd issued a trio of 2021 singles that led to the April 2022 release of Broken Hearts Club, her second solo album. Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Troy Taylor, and G Koop assisted Syd with production, while Smino, Kehlani, and Lucky Daye made featured appearances. ~ Andy Kellman