Back in late 2013, hip hop's biggest record label, Top Dawg Entertainment signed Isaiah Rashad, a youthful rapper with tremendous upside from Chattanooga, Tennessee. A couple months later he released his first full length project entitled Cilvia Demo. Characterized as a demo or project instead of an album was strange a thing to do, especially for an artist that was already signed to a label. However, I understood why it was called a demo because it was demonstration of Isaiah Rashad's capabilities, and that is exactly what he did with the project. A project that was well diverse, consisting of mellow tracks like "Heavenly Father" and "Ronnie Drake" while also showcasing Rashad's signature southern bounce on songs like "Banana", "R.I.P Kevin Miller", and "Modest". Since Cilvia Demo released back in early 2014, I have become so emotionally attached to not only Isaiah Rashad, but the project as a whole, and still listen to it religiously.
Having created such an enormous amount of buzz with Cilvia Demo, fans anticipated that a follow-up to his classic project would be released very soon, but that wasn't the case. In the two quiet years since Isaiah Rashad and TDE released Cilvia Demo, his inactivity fed his addiction, and vice versa. During a stint on Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron tour in 2014, he got hooked on a powerful mixture of Xanax and alcohol, a concoction that helped him cope with his ongoing battle with depression, but also almost led to him getting dropped from his label, Top Dawg Entertainment as a whole. But that is all behind him now.
Closing in on almost three years since the release of his first full-length project, Cilvia Demo, the Chattanooga-native is finally back, this time with a proper, official album release. His debut studio album entitled, "The Sun's Tirade", is a journey that is fueled by a cycle consisting of self-discovery and self-hatred. Rashad proudly wears his anxieties on his sleeves and is brutally honest and open throughout the duration of the album, a record charged by substance abuse and sorrowness.The album's title, "The Sun's Tirade", described by Rashad as "A long, extended, unnecessarily long hot ass, muggy fucking day", which what it was like for him living in Los Angeles these past two years. Mirroring the album’s cover art, throughout the album Rashad seemingly drifts along, floating through women, late nights, binges, and ascending to the top ranks in hip hop. Although both the subjects and sounds are heavy throughout the album, Rashad effortlessly switches it up on slower jazz-based tracks like "Stuck in the Mud" and "Find a Topic" to more uptempo tracks like "Park", "Tity and Dolla", and the lead single "Free Lunch".
Giving Chance The Rapper's Coloring Book a run for it’s money for album of the year so far, "The Sun's Tirade" is a well put together album that depicts Rashad's self-growth over the past couple of years and was well worth the wait. You can listen to "Free Lunch" below:
