{"id":63955,"date":"2026-05-05T17:08:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/isaiah-rashad-its-been-awful\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:08:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:08:33","slug":"isaiah-rashad-its-been-awful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/isaiah-rashad-its-been-awful\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Rashad, ‘It’s Been Awful’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tAt the center of Isaiah Rashad<\/a>\u2019s third album, It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em>, is \u201cAct Normal,\u201d which addresses a viral 2022 incident when tapes of the Chattanooga, Tennessee-raised artist making out with men leaked on the internet. He tells us that he grew up in a house full of secrets, says \u201cthe whole family was sex addicts,\u201d and remembers his mother being in love with her best friend. Now, as a 34-year-old rapper whose last album, 2021\u2019s The House Is Burning<\/em>, debuted at Number Seven on the Billboard <\/em>200, he declares himself \u201ca porn star\u201d and shrugs, \u201cSome girls come with a dick\/Some with the child support.\u201d (In an interview with Joe Budden, Rashad said <\/a>that he\u2019s \u201csexually fluid\u201d and in a monogamous relationship with a woman \u201cwho has a similar understanding of themselves.\u201d) \u201cWar is living yet at war with yourself\/I don\u2019t trust a boy or a girl,\u201d Rashad raps. \u201cAct normal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are other stray lines amid It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em>\u2019s 16-track, 54-minute track list that further illustrate a rap musician who belies stereotypes. \u201cSee, maybe stay the night, then I could be your boyfriend\/And if that doesn\u2019t work, then I\u2019ll just be your girlfriend,\u201d he harmonizes in a crusty whisper on \u201cBoy in Red,\u201d a duet with fellow TDE artist SZA with a chorus seemingly inspired by Prince\u2019s \u201cIf I Was Your Girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cDo I Look High?\u201d he tells himself, \u201cYou be fucking anybody when you on that powder.\u201d Rashad isn\u2019t the only mainstream male rapper to publicly explore his fluidity, so to speak; Tyler, the Creator immediately comes to mind. But It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em> and, specifically, \u201cAct Normal\u201d is as concise a statement about men in rap struggling with their sexuality as has ever been made. For listeners who survived the 1990s and the likes of Brand Nubian claiming they\u2019ll \u201cfuck up a f\u2014\u2013,\u201d it\u2019s an extraordinary development.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor much of his career, Rashad lingered in the shadows of Top Dawg Entertainment\u2019s primary breadwinner, Kendrick Lamar. Albums such as 2016\u2019s The Sun\u2019s Tirade <\/em>drew critical acclaim as well as admirers like Billie Eilish, who told RS<\/em><\/a> that her classic hit single \u201cBad Guy\u201d was inspired by Rashad and SZA\u2019s \u201cStuck in the Mud.\u201d In a recent Instagram Stories post<\/a> about his guest appearance on It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em>\u2019s \u201cCameras,\u201d Dominic Fike wrote, \u201cSo grateful to zay for all the flows I copied and all the late nights watching this man\u2019s music videos.\u201d Yet despite his quiet influence as well as a noteworthy performance at Coachella in 2022, Rashad hasn\u2019t quite broken out in the pop mainstream. He feels indicative of an era when rap musicians like himself, Tyler, Earl Sweatshirt, Rapsody, and others are subtly pushing the art forward, without the arena-smashing hit singles and Love & Hip-Hop-<\/em>styled tabloid antics of the past.<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tSonically, It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em> resembles Rashad\u2019s prior work, with slushy beats and filtered melodies \u2014 \u201cslow-ass beats,\u201d as Rashad calls them on \u201c10 States Away.\u201d They\u2019re cobbled together by producers like Julian Sintonia (who also sings on \u201cDo I Look High?\u201d), Hollywood Cole (who helms \u201cM.O.M.\u201d and is best known for J.I.D.\u2019s hit \u201cSistanem\u201d), and Mario Luciano (who co-produced \u201cSame Sh!t\u201d). Rashad makes frequent allusions to Outkast\u2019s ATLiens <\/em>and Aquemini <\/em>years, like the \u201cbreak\u201d callout at the beginning of \u201cM.O.M.\u201d (aka \u201cMan On a Mission\u201d), a blend of warm keyboard melodies and drum patterns. On \u201cDo I Look High?,\u201d he nods to another era in their career, rapping, \u201cI made this especially for us\/To commemorate the Idlewild<\/em>.\u201d Most of the album evokes the muddy, melancholy Southern blues of mid-\u201990s rap, like UGK\u2019s Ridin\u2019 Dirty<\/em> and Scarface\u2019s The Untouchable<\/em>, as well as the work of Big K.R.I.T., another Dirty South revivalist who couldn\u2019t quite break out of rap\u2019s middle class. He often accompanies his voice with female backing vocalists like Nina Woods (who also co-produces \u201cThe New Sublime\u201d), resulting in an oddly pleasing echoing effect. Near album\u2019s end, Rashad offers \u201cNuthin\u2019 to Hide,\u201d which mimics the kind of big-hearted pop-rock emotions that Noah Kahan and Hozier are known for.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\tRashad spends much of his time rapping about substance abuse, even though he\u2019s said that he\u2019s gotten sober. He drunk-dials his mother on \u201cScared 2 Look Down,\u201d and she responds that he\u2019s on a death wish. He misses his children on \u201c10 States Away\u201d and copes by getting loaded in the afternoon. \u201cAll my heroes are junkies, yeah,\u201d he affirms on \u201cHappy Hour,\u201d which doesn\u2019t sound as cool as he probably thinks it does. Then he ends It\u2019s Been Awful<\/em> with \u201c719 Freestyle,\u201d where he boasts with palpable energy before asking, curiously, \u201cWhat\u2019s that cage for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAny pop psychologist can draw connections between Rashad\u2019s tormented sexuality, fraught family memories, complicated feelings about being a rap star, and a reliance on pills, powders, alcohol, and sex. Ultimately, it\u2019s easier to praise him for being so honest about his troubles than wonder why he can\u2019t offer us resolution. \u201cI know I\u2019m flawed,\u201d he raps on \u201cSupaficial.\u201d \u201cBut stay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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At the center of Isaiah Rashad\u2019s third album, It\u2019s Been Awful, is \u201cAct Normal,\u201d which addresses a viral 2022 incident when tapes of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":63956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}