During a stint on Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron tour in 2014, he got hooked on a potent brew of Xanax and alcohol, a concoction used to numb himself during an ongoing battle with depression. In the two quiet years since Isaiah Rashad released Cilvia, his inactivity fed his addiction, and vice versa. “Now, I’m praying that I make it to 25/They be calling doctors for my health/And ‘no’ is kinda hard to say to drugs/’Cause I been having problems with myself,” Rashad rapped on “Heavenly Father.” He turned 25 this year, but it was a rocky road getting here. Rashad appeared fully-formed on his debut Cilvia Demo as a young rap star in the making constantly humanizing himself before eyewitnesses with bars like “I done grown up for my child’s sake.” It was clear early on that he wasn’t afraid to publicly grapple with his demons.

Is he about to stunt, or is he about to self-destruct? It makes his songs more like inkblots in a Rorschach test: What you see in them may depend on where you currently are on the spectrum-longing, laboring, or lost. They bleed through the rap revelry in verse, as if they could consume him at any moment. Chattanooga MC Isaiah Rashad wears his anxieties. Features guest appearances from KENDRICK LAMAR, DEACON BLUES, JAY ROCK, SZA and many more. Unofficial import on black vinyl - Debut 2016 studio album from American rapper RASHAD now on vinyl.