Isaiah Rashad is an American rapper born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1991 and signed to Top Dawg Entertainment alongside Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. His laid-back Southern style rewards patience — fitting for a catalog with five-year gaps — and The Sun's Tirade (2016) is the ideal entry. Dig into Isaiah Rashad vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Isaiah Rashad McClain was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 16, 1991. He signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (the Carson, California-based label home to Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock) in 2013 and released his TDE debut EP Cilvia Demo in 2014. His subsequent material has been characterized by extended production gaps - five years between Cilvia Demo (2014) and The Sun's Tirade (2016), and another five between that and The House Is Burning (2021). He has spoken publicly about addiction and recovery alongside the long production timelines.
Isaiah Rashad's sound combines Southern hip hop, hip hop, alternative hip hop, jazz rap, and Memphis hip hop with his distinctive laid-back vocal delivery and lyrical content addressing mental health, addiction, Southern Black masculinity, and personal experience. His work bridges the broader TDE conscious hip hop aesthetic with distinctly Southern reference points.
Top Dawg Entertainment pressings of the Isaiah Rashad catalog have been issued in color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings.
Listeners new to Isaiah Rashad typically start with The Sun's Tirade (2016) or The House Is Burning (2021).
