Steve Lacy’s Cracked iPhone From 2012 Is on View at the Smithsonian
The singer used the phone to create his first songs on Garage Band.
An artifact from the early days of Steve Lacy’s music career is on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., or simply, the Smithsonian. Entertainment Nation is a new exhibit charting the trajectory of pop culture over the past 150 years, pulling from the diverse histories of music, film, television and sports.
The exhibit just opened on Friday and encompasses approximately 200 objects. Among them is the first iPhone that Steve Lacy used to record music on as a teenager growing up in Compton, California.
The cracked 2012 iPhone was used by the then-budding singer to record songs and then build out tracks on the app Garage Band for solo projects, his band The Internet and even J. Cole.
The singer would go on to produce The Internet’s third studio album, Ego Death, earning him a GRAMMY nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the age of 17.
Lacy posted a slideshow of images from the exhibit on social media, sharing that his entire family came out to celebrate the opening with him.
Entertainment Nation is on view at the Smithsonian’s Ray and Dagmar Dolby Hall of American Culture. The experience is available in both English and Spanish languages.
In other music news, SZA has released a music video for “Nobody Gets Me.”
