“When I was in the process of getting signed it dawned on me that I was just gonna be the little Kendrick,” he says referencing the critically adored, commercially massive Lamar. “My daddy call me that day/ And he cried into my phone … Bout that love, that kind that he forgot/ Since he left his family all alone … I know my heart ain’t built to bleed.” On “Rope,” from Rashad’s 2016 debut album “The Sun’s Tirade,” he ponders commitment, self-sufficiency and suicide all in a matter of seconds. To that end Rashad, signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, the acclaimed Los Angeles boutique label home to the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, tackles weighty subjects. Inquisitive and reflective in conversation, Rashad fashions himself a storyteller, one following in the legacy of revered hip-hop narrators like Common and Nas - men who used their pen not for braggadocio but largely as a means of self-reflection.
“I don’t know how to make the extended exaggerated version of myself. “I was thinking about that,” the 25-year-old native of Chattanooga, Tenn., says when calling from the road. “You just do it till you do it.” To that end, Rashad hardly needs reminding how it’s practically a genre trademark for artists to create outsized caricatures of themselves to move product. “It’s just like a kid who decides they’re going to play football,” he says. He’s known he was going to be one since he was 8 years old.
Watch the interview above, and make sure to check out his debut album The Sun's Tirade.Isaiah Rashad is a rapper by trade. With that in mind, he also offered his take on hip hop's younger generation knowing and engaging with the genre's history, as well as our current political landscape and the true workings of our election process. Instead, he's chosen to focus more on finding truths in his present, and believes heavily in looking forward. He also expressed that despite the success of his first release, he doesn't feel anchored to his prior opinions or musings.
As we now know, part of that time was occupied by an ongoing battling with substance abuse issues, that almost resulted in him losing his deal. But from our sit down with him, it's clear that he has come out on the other side as a better man, with a heightened sense of self.ĭuring our discussion he spoke of his personal evolution and pursuit of something beyond secular rewards, and how that has influenced his outlook on life-as well as his music. Like all of the label's artists, Isaiah's work was heavily awaited after what amounts to a year and a half gap between his debut project Cilvia Demo. After some time out of the spotlight, Isaiah Rashad has returned to the forefront with his debut album The Sun's Tirade-the most recent of TDE's 2016 takeover.
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