Isaiah Rashad Albums, Ranked

Isaiah Rashad has possibly had one of the most underrated three album runs of any artist of the last decade. The Chattanooga native is signed to Top Dawg Entertainment along with artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, and SZA. Rashad’s debut solo album, Cilvia Demo, was released in 2014, followed by his sophomore album, The Sun’s Tirade, in 2016. He went on a five-year hiatus from music before dropping his third album, The House is Burning, in 2021. Let’s examine how these three albums compare within Rashad’s discography.

3. The House is Burning (2021)

Rashad’s most recent album, The House is Burning falls at No. 3 on this list. It’s not because of its pitfalls but because of the strength of Rashad’s previous two albums. The House is Burning’s sound, like all of Rashad’s albums, is true to his Southern upbringing. The album is soulful, melodic, and trap-heavy. Rashad has become a savant when mixing these two elements, and The House is Burning features some of Rashad’s hardest songs to date.

Tracks such as “From the Garden” feat. Lil Uzi Vert and “Lay Wit Ya” feat. Duke Deuce diverges from the more mellow atmosphere of many of Rashad’s previous songs. It shows the Tennessee rapper’s range in different genres of Hip-Hop. Rashad also pays homage to veteran Southern MCs such as Goodie Mob and Three 6 Mafia. He even samples Project Pat’s “Cheese and Dope” on “RIP Young.”

The House is Burning’s pace does slow down within the middle of the project. Songs such as “Claymore” and “All Herb” feat. Amindi are more melodic and contain a sound reminiscent of R&B. However, Rashad ends the project with two of the strongest songs on the album, “THIB” and “HB2U”. The album also features fellow Top Dawg conglomerates SZA and Jay Rock, who have each been featured on Isaiah Rashad albums.

2. Cilvia Demo (2014)

Rashad’s debut album, Cilvia Demo, contains rawness and hunger. He established his signature sound and swagger throughout the record. Prior to Cilvia Demo’s release, many TDE fans were unsure of his placement on the label. He was seen as the odd man out due to his geographic location. In 2014, TDE’s growth in popularity was mainly due to the success of the members of Black Hippy: Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, and Ab-Soul. All four artists hailed from Los Angeles, California. However, Rashad proved he belonged amongst the upper echelon of MCs and solidified his place.

Perhaps Rashad’s greatest consecutive six-track run follows the opening song, “Hereditary.” The first half of the album immediately put fans on notice. Rashad demonstrated his expertise in combining smooth flows, atmospheric beats, and Southern aesthetics. This Is heard on “Webbie Flow (U Like),” “Cilvia Demo,” and “R.I.P. Kevin Miller.” TDE newcomer at the time, SZA, appeared on “Ronnie Drake” and “West Savannah.” “West Savannah” is one of the most soulful and atmospheric tracks of Rashad’s entire discography. He references Outkast’s first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, in the duetted chorus with SZA.

Cilvia Demo is at times rough around the edges, as expected from a debut. Yet, it established Rashad as one of the most compelling voices in Hip-Hop and confirmed his place among the elite.

1. The Sun’s Tirade (2016)

Arguably, Rashad’s best album to date is his 2016 sophomore project, The Sun’s Tirade. During the time of its release, Rashad was struggling with drug addiction and was almost dropped from TDE. Though the album reflects his vices, it does so in an amazingly beautiful and poetic way. The Sun’s Tirade is definitely Rashad’s most lyrically profound album as he examines topics such as race, depression, and addiction.

The ninth track, “Tity and Dolla,” also shows Rashad at his hardest. The song features Hugh Augustine and Jay Rock and feels like a celebration of Southern rap from a previous generation. “Stuck in the Mud” featuring SZA is a seven-minute song that goes into detail about Rashad’s struggles. “Stuck in the Mud” is one of the most poetic songs on the album.

As with Rashad’s other albums, The Sun’s Tirade ends on a high note with “by george (outro)” and “Find a Topic (homies begged)”. Overall, The Sun’s Tirade is Rashad at his best and will arguably go down as a sleeper album turned classic. It is already extremely well-remembered only seven years after its release.

Isaiah Rashad Drops A Deluxe Edition Of ‘The House Is Burning’ With Juicy J, Young Nudy, And More After ‘Homies Begged’

The world waited nearly five years for Isaiah Rashad to make his return to the music world and finally, at the beginning of August, he did just that. The TDE rapper touched down with his second album The House Is Burning, and it was met with rave reviews from fans. Guest appearances from Lil Uzi Vert, Jay Rock, SZA, 6lack, Smino, and more also stood out on Rashad’s latest body of work. Nearly four months after he released it, Rashad returns with its deluxe version simply because the “homies begged.”

The new version adds four songs to the project’s original 16 tracks. It finds Rashad sticking to his Tennessee roots by sharing a remix of “RIP Young” with Juicy J and Project and heading to Atlanta for “Deep Blue” with Young Nudy and “Geordan Favors” with Deante’ Hitchcock. Lastly, the TDE rapper recruits West coast singer Umi for the deluxe edition’s closer, “Donuts.”

Prior to sharing the deluxe version of The House Is Burning, Rashad released videos for “THIB,” “Chad” with YGTUT,” and “From The Garden” with Lil Uzi. He also stopped by A COLORS Show to deliver a vivid performance of “HB2U.”

The House Is Burning (Homies Begged) is out now via TDE/Warner. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad Experiences Some Paranormal Activities In His Eerie ‘THIB’ Video

TDE rapper Isaiah Rashad is currently on tour promoting his new album The House Is Burning, but that didn’t stop him from continuing the other part of promoting an album — releasing a new music video. This time, the eerie “THIB” video turns the title track into a darkly surreal thriller, as Rashad wakes to a spooky rumbling that turns into an explosion, leaving his house… well, burning. From there, Rashad wanders the nighttime neighborhood, hovering above the action like a ghost and taking in the odd, paranormal goings-on of his quiet cul-de-sac.

The release of The House Is Burning ended a nearly-five-year hiatus for the Chattanooga rapper during which he struggled with addiction, going broke, wrecking his boss’s car, and getting clean. When he did come back, he brought with him the rowdy Memphis rapper Duke Duece for the exuberant return single “Lay Wit Ya.” And while his new album naturally features appearances from his TDE cohorts like Schoolboy Q, who appeared in the reflective video for “Runnin’,” Rashad also helped introduce newcomer Doechii with “Wat U Sed” and linked up with a superstar in the form of Lil Uzi Vert on “From The Garden.”

Watch Isaiah Rashad’s “THIB” video above and read Uproxx’s full review of the album here.

Isaiah Rashad Asserts His Stardom In The Mellow ‘Chad’ Video

In the video for “Chad,” the latest single from Isaiah Rashad’s long-awaited comeback album The House Is Burning, the Chattanooga rapper asserts his stardom alongside fellow Chat-town native YGTUT. Employing the “video shoot at a gas station” trope that has become so popular over the past year, Rashad fills the video with cameos from his friends in the music business. The cameos include Aminé, who appears as a delivery man, Denzel Curry, who maintains the gas station sign, and Dominic Fike, who appears to be assisting Rashad’s TDE cohort Jay Rock in some shady business. In addition, many members of the TDE posse show up, including new signee Ray Vaughn and Reason.

The video arrived just in time to highlight TDE’s next generation of stars as Kendrick Lamar departs the label after over a decade of partnership. Rashad recently had to clear up a fan misconception that one of his recent tweets dissed Kendrick for leaving; after a subtweet to his ex was interpreted as a shot at Kendrick, Isaiah deleted the tweet and explained the context on The Breakfast Club. It appears there isn’t really any bad blood between them, and Top Dawg himself wished the Compton rapper well in his future endeavors.

Isaiah, meanwhile, has been hard at work promoting his new album, releasing videos for “Runnin,” “Wat U Sed,” “From The Garden,” and now, “Chad” in relatively rapid succession while preparing to head out on Lil Sunny’s Awesome Vacation tour this month.

Watch the video for “Chad” above.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad Brings A Vivid Performance Of The Low-Key ‘HB2U’ To ‘A COLORS Show’

A COLORS Show is well-known for breaking new and international artists, mostly focusing on rising stars or favorites from places like Britain, France, and various African countries. Every so often, though, the show secures a performance from a big-name American star like Alicia Keys, Black Thought, or Smino. Today, Colors Studio shared an eye-popping performance from Isaiah Rashad, who played a relaxed rendition of his low-key The House Is Burning song, “HB2U.”

Decked out in a Fuschia ensemble, Rashad pops out against the electric yellow background as he croons and spits his surprisingly complex verses with well-practiced ease, barely even seeming to take a breath despite the densely packed, syllable-stacking lyrics. “HB2U” — an acronym for “Happy Birthday to You” — is one of the cornerstone pieces of his new album The House Is Burning, finding him conversing with himself to unpack his self-destructive behaviors as he reflects on getting older and hopes to grow wiser in proportion.

Isaiah was a recent guest on Uproxx’s People’s Party podcast, discussing his favorite rappers and recalling studying Outkast to master his flow.

Watch Isaiah Rashad’s vivid performance of “HB2U” at Colors Studios above.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad And Lil Uzi Vert’s ‘From The Garden’ Video Is Trippy and Twerking-Fueled

Last week Isaiah Rashad dropped his excellent new album, The House Is Burning, which our hip-hop editor Aaron Williams described as depicting ” the tension between that sense of helplessness in the face of certain doom and our own… need to press forward as though this is all normal, even though we know it’s not.” This week, Rashad is keeping up the stream of new material by dropping a video for the Lil Uzi Vert-featuring “From The Garden.” The visuals start off in black and white, with Rashad rapping and walking through the neighborhood, lingering outside a line to get into a club, where 4-wheelers and expensive cars line the street.

Lil Uzi Vert does show up in the clip to rap alongside Rashad, wielding a 4-wheeler of his own in a return to black and white visuals that multiply and divide like a trippy ’70s video where twerking abounds. Cutting back to the club from earlier, more hijinks abound as someone drops a pizza, and Rashad makes it rain with fistfuls of money outside the club, as patrons eagerly run over to grab the cash. Check out the Omar Jones-directed visuals above and read our full review of The House Is Burning here.

Isaiah Rashad Paints A Portrait Of A Man On Fire With ‘The House Is Burning’

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There’s a webcomic, one of those relatable, simply-drawn four-panel stories, in which a little cartoon dog sits at a table sipping from a mug of tea. The house he’s in is on fire, and in the second panel, he finally reacts to his situation: “This is fine,” he insists, although things around him are most certainly not in any way “fine.” The comic, a 2013 strip of the gag-a-day comic Gunshow has since been stripped down to these first two panels and re-shared into cultural ubiquity, a meme detached in many ways from its original context to describe most of our everyday existence in the era of Trump and COVID.

Isaiah Rashad’s new album, The House Is Burning, is very much the audio equivalent of this comic, with Isaiah playing the role of Question Hound, and his lyrics reflecting both of the juxtaposed states in play in the comic. On one hand, there is a creeping, nauseous sense of paranoia and dread. On the other, there is the Chattanooga rapper’s bemused insistence that everything is fine, the denial of the disaster in progress that threatens his very existence. The appeal of The House Is Burning is, yes, in its relatability, the tension between that sense of helplessness in the face of certain doom and our own (pardon) dogged need to press forward as though this is all normal, even though we know it’s not.

In the five years since we last heard from Rashad on the fan-favorite The Sun’s Tirade, the Tennesseean native has lived through his own version of this hell, in part of his own making. In the lead-up to his latest release, he’s been candid about the fires that burned around him; his twin battles with anxiety and addiction led him to nearly imploding his own career, spending nearly all his rap money, and returning home to Chattanooga, where family and friends couldn’t believe that Rashad, a Top Dawg Entertainment employee, was running on fumes and drinking himself to death as a result.

Tracks throughout the album augur this sense of weary, doomed resignation. “Some n****s gon’ die in the cardboard, some n****s gon’ die in the feds,” he observes on the hook to album opener “Darkseid.” On single “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” amidst seemingly celebratory fare about cars with bass and his indefatigable sex appeal, Rashad sneaks in the cutting line “I got a crib bigger than Budapest / And the shots ain’t bringin’ my soldier back,” making the double entendre and stiletto slice of the grim reflection slide by behind the cool glamor of his stolid facade.

However, these gloomy ruminations share equal time and space with party tracks like “Wat U Sed” with TikTok star Doechii and Kal Banks and “From The Garden” with Lil Uzi Vert, where Rashad indulges in the excesses and flexes expected of rap stars of his stature. On “Lay Wit Ya,” the first song he promoted as a single from the album, he calls himself “a cold piece of work” and smears his sweaty come-ons with a fine layer of affected disaffection — some might call this pimping — as he works hard to appear like none of this is work. In reality, all the water rolling off his back may not look like it affects him, but underneath, he’s treading for dear life — a lot like the rest of us.

So there is relief and release in the pure R&B songs that smatter the tracklisting. “Claymore” with Smino finds Rashad finding solace in the temporary company of a string of women — and even that can’t keep him from heeding the siren call of his addictions. He gets even more vulnerable on “Score” with 6lack and SZA as he details his “war scars and more sh*t” for a potential paramour, warning her before she gets too close how likely he is to run. As is usual in Rashad’s discography, the album is sprinkled with references to hip-hop classics and figures like Chad Butler (aka Pimp C) of UGK, for whom a track is named, and callbacks to Goodie Mob’s “Cell Therapy” on “THIB,” reinforcing that relatability factor that has so endeared him to fans.

What results is a portrait of a man on fire, struggling to find inspiration and hope in dire circumstances and coming out on the other side by the sheer will it takes to stop pretending everything is fine. In that comic I mentioned earlier, the part that often gets cut in its ongoing meme-ification is the final two panels, in which Question Hound eventually just melts away from the heat and his own refusal to take action. That’s the key difference here; recognizing that he needed help, Isaiah sought and received it with the support of his TDE cohorts and leadership. The real takeaway from the album isn’t even really on it: The house is burning, but the choice to burn with it is entirely up to you.

The House Is Burning is out now on TDE/Warner Records. Get it here.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad Keeps ‘Score’ With SZA And 6lack On A Mellow, Drowned-Out Collaboration

In less than two months, fans will gear up to celebrate the five-year anniversary of Isaiah Rashad’s stellar debut album, The Sun’s Tirade. It’s an effort that was highly celebrated upon its release, and one that oftentimes receives a high ranking in discussions about hip-hop projects from the last half-decade. With that being said, some believed the anniversary would come without a new album from him as prior to today, Rashad had yet to drop a full-length follow-up to The Sun’s Tirade. Thankfully, that has changes tonight with the release of The House Is Burning.

The 16-track effort finally arrives for fans and one of its highlights is “Score” with SZA and 6lack. The well-constructed collaboration is led by mellow and drowned-out vocals from Rashad who opts for a bit of singing as opposed to rapping his way through the beat. SZA steps in for a rather small contribution to the song while 6lack delivers a strong verse of his own.

On the rest of The House Is Burning, listeners will hear guest appearances from Lil Uzi Vert, Jay Rock, Duke Deuce, Smino, Amindi, Jay Worthy, Doechii, Kal Banx, and YGTUT. The project is led by a group of singles that include, “Lay Wit Ya,” “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” and “From The Garden.”

Press play on Rashad, SZA, and 6lack’s “Score” in the video above.

The House Is Burning is out now via TDE/Warner. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad’s New Collaboration With Lil Uzi Vert Is Fresh Like It Came ‘From The Garden’

With Isaiah Rashad’s new album, The House Is Burning just hours from release, the TDE rapper releases just one more song to juice the hype. Incidentally, it might also be one of the songs with the biggest buzz — which isn’t to say that “Lay Wit Ya” with Duke Deuce, “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” “Wat U Sed,” featuring Doechii and Kal Banks, or “Runnin’” with Schoolboy Q weren’t heavily anticipated on their own. It’s just that Lil Uzi Vert, the guest star on “From The Garden,” is one of the biggest stars in rap right now, and hearing him paired with Isaiah constituted one of the more intriguing possibilities.

The spare beat, which is produced by Kal Banks, features a dramatic soul sample reworked from the version Rashad teased on his Instagram Live nearly four years ago. Within the verses, the two rappers spit boastful verses that find them linking themselves to such pop-culture figures as Shazam and Lil Wayne. It’ll be one of those songs that definitely turn the crowd up when it gets played live on Isaiah’s upcoming tour.

Listen to Isaiah Rashad’s “From The Garden” featuring Lil Uzi Vert above.

The House Is Burning is due 7/30 on TDE/Warner. You can pre-save it now.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Isaiah Rashad’s ‘Runnin’ Video Schoolboy Q Reflects On His Whirlwind Career

Isaiah Rashad fans have been waiting for quite a while for the Chattanooga rapper’s follow-up to his debut album The Sun’s Tirade and this Friday, they’ll finally get their fill when The House Is Burning drops on TDE and Warner Records. With the release just days away, Isaiah releases one last video, “Runnin’” featuring Schoolboy Q, to give fans a preview of what to expect.

The video is more of a nostalgic look back through the archives of Rashad’s career so far, featuring behind-the-scenes footage from his prior tours and recording sessions (there are even some glimpses from back when he had ‘locs!). Naturally, during Q’s verse, the perspective shifts to follow the exploits of the South LA native. Kenny Beats and Dom Maker provide murky but smooth instrumentation for their lyrics to glide over, giving the song an improvisational but polished sound.

Prior to the release of the upcoming album, Rashad also shared videos for comeback single “Lay Wit Ya” featuring Memphis crunk revivalist Duke Deuce, “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” and “Wat U Sed” featuring TikTok-favorite Tampa rapper Doechii and Kal Banx.

Watch Isaiah Rashad’s “Runnin’” video featuring Schoolboy Q above.

The House Is Burning is due 7/30 on TDE and Warner Records. Pre-save it here.