Syd

Syd has stood as a key presence in the Los Angeles music community ever since linking up with Odd Future, serving most prominently as lead vocalist for the soul-infused alternative R&B outfit the Internet. Beyond her deep involvement with that Grammy-nominated ensemble, she has released the solo albums Fin (2017) and Broken Hearts Club (2022) plus a range of singles and EPs. These projects often lean more candid, dialogue-driven, and centered on slow jams than the Internet’s material, spotlighting Syd’s understated vocals—sometimes outright bold—in accounts of romance and physical desire.

A lifelong L.A. native born Sydney Loren Bennett, she assembled a home studio during her teenage years, sharpened her engineering craft, and began crafting tracks for various Odd Future and affiliated efforts. While remaining an essential Odd Future collaborator—handling all recording and mixing on Tyler, The Creator’s Goblin, for example—she launched the Internet, which issued an album every other year from 2011 through 2015. Ego Death, the final release in the band’s initial Columbia trilogy, received a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Securing her own Columbia agreement, Syd debuted as a solo artist in 2017 with Fin, an album shaped by mid- to late-’90s recordings from artists including Brandy and Aaliyah. Always Never Home, a three-track companion EP, followed later that year. After the Internet’s fourth album Hive Mind arrived in 2018, Syd placed “Getting Late” on the Queen & Slim soundtrack. In the stretch between solo projects, her growing catalog of external collaborations expanded through featured appearances on Free Nationals’ “Shibuya,” Lil Uzi Vert’s “Urgency,” Disclosure’s “Birthday,” ZAYN’s “When Love’s Around,” and Brittany Howard’s “Baby,” among others. Three singles issued in 2021 preceded the April 2022 arrival of Broken Hearts Club, her second solo album. Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Troy Taylor, and G Koop contributed production, while Smino, Kehlani, and Lucky Daye appeared as guests.