When singer-songwriter SiR started growing his dreadlocks in 2010, he didn’t know the level of maintenance it would require. He was initially enthused by the Rastafarian concept of locs and their spiritual significance, finding meaning behind the now-popular hairdo. Although not as invested anymore, he realizes how his loc journey coincides with his personal development. There’s been plenty of breakage but also restoration. When we first met at Sony Music’s New York headquarters in 2022, he was promoting his latest album, Heavy — which was supposed to drop that fall — now releasing almost two years later, on March 22, due mainly to personal reasons. Heavy is a prologue to SiR’s life — the 16-track project serves as an entry point into his struggles dealing with celebrity, addiction, romantic turmoil, and the process of healing and forgiveness — be it receiving it from others or oneself. “Heavy,” the album’s titular song, is a cry for help. SiR says he wrote the nearly four-minute track before coming clean to his family about his addiction to Percocet, alcohol, and cocaine. “I been killing myself softly,” he croons in the song’s chorus. “Waking up remembering, I’m losing sleep over dreams that were coming true.” “The worst of the worst started during the pandemic,” SiR says. “I was going through depression like a lot of people and some family issues that I wasn’t talking to anybody about, so it just kept building and building until I had a breaking point. I turned to the wrong things for my coping and not talking to people was my biggest mistake.” When he began opening up about his addiction, he also began therapy, with his therapist recommending he use his music as a diary of sorts. “I translated everything into a song and it was immensely therapeutic,” he says. SiR’s music, which is gospel and soul-influenced, is riddled with themes of love, yearning, and heartbreak. Now, with this third album, fans are getting a glimpse into his vulnerabilities, which range from messy to graceful refinement.
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SiR has been in the industry for more than a decade, working with artists like Tyrese, Warren G, and Jill Scott, but he’s received recent recognition for his solo projects. His debut album, Seven Sundays, which came out in 2015, and 2016’s November gave him an official standing within the R&B genre, leading him to open for Miguel’s 2018 War and Leisure tour. His 2019 release, Chasing Summer, catapulted him even further, spending three weeks on the Billboard 200. SiR’s music is at the cutting edge of soul and R&B, and is rooted in gospel. His smooth croons, about real life — often over live instrumentation — satisfy the listener, be it a trained musician or layman.
SiR is private, opening up for the first time about his personal life and most of all — his faults. Raised in the Christian church (where astrology isn’t a favorable topic), he knows both his rising and sun astrological sign — Scorpio. Still, he’s not big into astrology, but when I explain the essence of Scorpion energy — which if used for the greater good is like the phoenix, capable of rising from the ashes of destruction — he agrees: “You read the story of my life.” He’s transparent without disclosing his full hand. He’s justifiably careful when talking about his wife and daughter, not outwardly expressing some of his family issues that burden his spirit. But when I inquire about some of the lyrics to his songs, he reveals a bit. “Satisfaction,” on the album’s later half, is a slight peek into the turmoil he caused within his 15-year marriage. “See, this was never meant to be what it feels like/This ain’t your real life/And, nah, I’m not real,” he sings in the bridge, followed by the chorus “This isn’t as simple as satisfaction, I wish the future never happened.” “It sucks to say, but it’s true, that song was about a real-life situation,” SiR confessed back in 2022. “My marriage was on the rocks, and I started dealing with someone that wasn’t my wife. Rules were established but that shit didn’t work because people started catching feelings. Before things got to a point where it was out of control, I decided to have this conversation but was a bitch about it and wrote that song instead of talking to the [other] woman.”
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At the time, he and Kelly-Ann — who he has been with for 20 years — were still technically married but were at a bit of a standstill. Their focus was solely on being the best co-parents they could be for their (then) two-year-old daughter. “I really shot myself in the foot with that,” SiR said. “Nobody can replace Kelly, that’s my love. I really love that woman and am blessed to still have her in the capacity that I do. I didn’t want to replace my situation, our relationship was [just] emotionally torn and I started looking for some type of emotional stability for myself, and I fucked everything up. Now, I just got to take what I can get.” The next time SiR and I meet, it’s a rainy Tuesday in early March, and we are sitting in the second-floor lounge of SIXTY LES Hotel, where he’s staying. He’s wearing a Namacheko multicolored, leopard-print vest over a cream T-shirt, paired with black flare jeans, and his eyes are a tad squinty from the joint he sparked up midshoot. “I still smoke weed every once in a while,&rdq … (truncated)