It has nearly been a full year since Top Dawg Entertainment rolled out its last project. For Isaiah Rashad, the layoff has been much longer. When the Chattanooga native delivered his last album, Kevin Durant hadn’t played a single game for the Golden State Warriors, Barack Obama was still the President of the United States and Drake had number one hit as a lead artist. Not to mention, his labelmate, SZA, hadn’t dropped her debut album and Reason hadn’t even been signed. Simply put, a lot has happened in the world since the Sun’s Tirade dropped.
Isaiah Rashad has also experienced a number of changes in his life. He’s been open about his struggles with mental health and addictive behaviors. In fact, he’s showcased his road back to music through videos like “Headshots” that show him in a support group. Fortunately, he has made it through the fire and he’s here to talk about it on his sophomore album, The House Is Burning.
“Hopefully this is the start of something new—no more five-year gaps,” he told Apple Music.
Isaiah Rashad’s return to the spotlight kicked off earlier this summer with the release of his album’s lead single, “Lay Wit Ya.” Produced by Hollywood Cole, the song is as hyped up and crunk as an Isaiah Rashad single could ever be. Interestingly enough, he was able to put everything together with Hollywood Cole in under 30 minutes.
“‘Lay Wit Ya’ came from a lockout that we had had like last January. Again, it was just a scratch—a scratch idea that we turned full once we had listened to it a couple of times. Hollywood Cole threw us the beat. Made it in about 10 minutes. That was it. I just liked it,” he explained.
More recently, he has released singles like “Headshots” and “Wat U Sed” with Kal Banx that fall more in line with his previous releases. He also tapped in with Lil’ Uzi Vert for “From The Garden.” Not to mention, he connected Jay Rock, Smino, 6LACK, SZA and several other talented artists for this effort. Putting it all together, he hopes to create something that pays homage to the Southern artists he grew up listening to.
“I tried to hone in on the energy of all the types of music I grew up listening to—Texas bounce, Louisiana bounce, a little bit of neo-soul in there,” he explained.
“I tried to update it, flip it and make it apply to how I be feeling nowadays.”
Without further adieu, here’s the finished product.
