{"id":465646,"date":"2026-05-29T06:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/465646\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:29:08","slug":"isaiah-rashad-its-been-awful-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/465646\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Rashad: IT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The road to Isaiah Rashad\u2019s IT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL began in classic Top Dawg Entertainment fashion: a leaked internal schedule in February 2024, followed by a trail of leaked text messages that October. Yet, after two more years of relative hibernation, the project\u2019s arrival in April 2026 bypassed the label\u2019s usual drawn-out rollout. Instead, Rashad and TDE opted for an abrupt, condensed timeline\u2014the lead single, \u201cSAME SH!T,\u201d dropped mere weeks ahead of the release, while \u201cBOY IN RED\u201d surfaced just 24 hours before the full album drop. It is a sudden prelude to a record where Rashad avoids radical sonic reinvention, choosing instead to retreat into his most potent lane: a raw, unflinching look into his own psyche.<\/p>\n

Rashad\u2019s maturity is most evident in how he handles these personal depths, shifting away from the club-ready energy of The House is Burning standouts like \u201cLay With Ya\u201d toward the sluggish, hazy gravity of the opener, \u201cTHE NEW SUBLIME.\u201d The production anchors itself on a simple bassline and a muddy kick drum, driven by an indecisive snare that alternates between burying itself in the mix and stepping into the forefront. Muted horns and distant vocal hums add a haunting texture to the arrangement. Over this minimalist backdrop, Rashad delivers a visceral opening salvo: \u201cI\u2019m cut from a sinful nature and I feel afflicted\/ falling over\/ ask me who I\u2019m fucking, I\u2019ve been fucking up.\u201d It is a peak of self-deprecation, capturing a desperate search for an antidote to his self-prescribed affliction. <\/p>\n

His history with substance abuse is well-documented, having noted in a 2021 Fader interview that he used alcohol and Xanax to escape his realities, but here, the anxiety of regression feels immediate. A few bars later, he admits, \u201cIf I romanticize them Percocets\/ I might relapse again.\u201d Reflecting on his lowest points, including his sister\u2019s incarceration and his own brief bout with homelessness, Rashad captures the psychological toll of trying to play the invulnerable hero when everything is collapsing. He had to be Superman just to survive, and his mental health suffered drastically for it. Fittingly, this heavy introductory journey closes on a single, haunting command: \u201cpray.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spiritual fatigue gives way to \u201cM.O.M.,\u201d a vibrant song that hides Rashad\u2019s structural anxieties beneath angelic keys and a crisp, surgical drum kit. Here, he wrestles with the exhausting nuances of late-stage capitalism and the hollow promise of financial security. On his older track \u201c4r Da Squaw,\u201d Rashad famously established a humble baseline for peace of mind: \u201cif I can pay my bills, I\u2019m good, I\u2019m coming over.\u201d On \u201cM.O.M.,\u201d those comfortable notions are shattered. He counters his past self with a grim realization: \u201cEverything for sell, even hell, my n***a\/ Soon they\u2019ll be tryna sell the air, my n***a\/ Paid my bills and it still don\u2019t work\/ Ask my dawg if we still on Earth.\u201d Achieving his financial goals hasn\u2019t saved him; instead, he finds himself in a hyper-monetized world that threatens to price out the air itself, leaving him completely disoriented. Attempting to find a baseline between \u201clies, truths, the average between,\u201d Rashad eventually trails off, unable to define what reality even looks like anymore. Instead, he retreats into the familiar escapism of a substance-fueled bender, instructing the listener \u201cdon\u2019t just dance, go on, get loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later tracks like \u201cSUPAFICIAL\u201d and \u201cSCARED 2 LOOK DOWN\u201d expand on these sensitive themes, packaging heavy, challenging concepts into remarkably accessible sonic formats. The psychological stakes here mirror his 2022 interview with Joe Budden, where Rasahd spoke candidly about his volatile self-worth within the rap industry, describing a pendulum that swung from feeling \u201cinvincible\u201d to feeling like \u201cjust the worst.\u201d In that same discussion, he addressed his history with self-harm, exposing a deeply private trauma for public consumption. On \u201cSUPAFICIAL,\u201d he reframes the word itself; his original claim that these actions were \u201csuperficial\u201d wasn\u2019t an attempt to minimize his pain, but an admission that the coping mechanism was entirely internal. On the record, those injuries are now wrapped in tattoos and double entendres.<\/p>\n

On \u201cSUPAFICIAL,\u201d Rashad reclaims his basic humanity and agency, rapping, \u201cBaby, I\u2019m worth more than the rap shit\/ Worth more than my rap sheet.\u201d It is an explicit demand to be viewed holistically, far beyond the flattening glare of celebrity. Here, the whole person is presented as a patchwork of scars and lived experience, an identity anchored by his vulnerable admission: \u201cI know I\u2019m flawed, but stay with me.\u201d When he later notes that \u201cscars on you never lie,\u201d they serve as honest evidence of his history rather than marks of shame. It perfectly mirrors his earlier confession that his physical injuries, however superficial they may have seemed, were the outward manifestations of a deep battle with depression.<\/p>\n

That same transparency carries over to \u201cSCARED 2 LOOK DOWN,\u201d where Rashad addresses both the fallout of his leaked sex tape and his past attempts on his own life. He delivers remarkably level-headed bars about his sexual fluidity\u2014\u201cfucking her and her and him, fucking on your mama\u201d\u2014fully embracing the reality that he no longer has any hidden skeletons for anyone to expose. His rapid-fire delivery on lines like \u201c\u2019bout 16 carats, I been cutting my wrist\/ All the internet hating, give a fuck \u2018bout that\u201d whizzes by, cloaking intense vulnerability in an effortlessly cool, nonchalant attitude. Through this admission of self-harm, the \u201c16 carats\u201d lyric takes on a grim double meaning, operating simultaneously as a standard hip-hop flex about expensive jewelry and a literal, darker reference to physical scars.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, IT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL is not a flawless album, nor is it an easy one. It is a dense, heavily nuanced project wrapped in layers of subtext that demand both a close familiarity with Rashad\u2019s biography and multiple, active listens to fully parse. The sonic shifts can occasionally feel as erratic as the timeline that birthed them. Yet, these structural imperfections are precisely what make the record feel so authentic. Rashad refuses to offer neat resolutions or artificial triumphs. Instead, IT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL stands as a courageous, deeply human act of survival\u2014proof that even when the armor is completely stripped away, Isaiah Rashad remains one of the most compelling and necessary voices in modern hip-hop.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tIT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL stands as a courageous, deeply human act of survival\u2014proof that even when the armor is completely stripped away, Isaiah Rashad remains one of the most compelling and necessary voices in modern hip-hop.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

80 %<\/p>\n

Defiant Transparency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The road to Isaiah Rashad\u2019s IT\u2019S BEEN AWFUL began in classic Top Dawg Entertainment fashion: a leaked internal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,200701,46,409],"class_list":["post-465646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-isaiah-rashad","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}