Part of the charm of Isaiah Rashad’s music is the contrast between its vitality and its loose, tossed-off quality. The offhandedness and unforced energy of the rapper-singer’s 2014 EP Cilvia Demo and his subsequent two full-length releases belied the fact that the songs were meticulously constructed and performed. Only his rare songs explicitly labeled as freestyles could be thought of as truly off-the-dome and even those have a measure of composure to them. That approach hits a snag on Rashad’s third studio album, It’s Been Awful, both his most laidback and least purposeful effort to date.
As the album’s title indicates, things aren’t so hot in Rashad’s world. “Never been sober, but I’m trying/Last time that I told you that I was, I was lying,” he admits on “Do I Look High?” He cops to “burning through funds with my crystal love” on “Ain’t Givin’ Up,” about an addict who, per the song’s title, is disinclined to give up the high. I say “disinclined” rather than “refuses to” since the track’s ambling pace and wandering production, featuring a saxophone that drifts in as the drums shuffle unhurriedly, make Rashad sound lost and apathetic. Bar for bar, it’s a well-written song, but it exudes a listlessness that’s emblematic of the album as a whole.
If things are indeed as awful for Rashad as they seem—he bemoans long nights spent with “tweakers” and he repeatedly references choosing “profit over love”—it makes sense that It’s Been Awful wouldn’t exactly feel triumphant. There are flashes of the energy and raw power of Rashad’s best work: “M.O.M.” is kinetic and propulsive, animated by paranoia about government cover-ups and Elon Musk surveilling phone records, while the opening verse of “10 States Away” beautifully outlines how hard it is to get distance from a relationship that you’ve botched. But these are few and far between.
Rashad’s verses are largely delivered through stilted staccato bursts on “Same Sh!t,” with belabored lists of priorities and things that haunt him. And while “Supaficial,” easily among the best tracks here, contains the memorable refrain “Baby, I hate lights in the ceiling, can we lay outside?,” with Rashad’s pronunciation of “baby” sounding particularly disarming, he lazily employs the same word on “Happy Hour” at the end of almost every line of a verse and pilfers former label-mate Kendrick Lamar’s phrasing of it from songs like “Purple Hearts.”
At its best, It’s Been Awful’s production is breezy and its drums refreshingly un-programmatic. But aside from one Memphis-style cut, “Scared 2 Look Down,” the lack of grittier street songs is curious. Rashad seems to be aiming for TikTok-friendly bedroom pop with the SZA-assisted “Boy in Red” and the Dominic Fike-featuring “Cameras,” which are pleasant but evaporative.
The album’s palette is a little rock-leaning, a bit jazzy, and kind of reminiscent of the L.A. beat movement and artists like Flying Lotus. But it doesn’t commit to any of these things, nor synthesize them enough, to generate a compelling overarching style. This time around, Rashad hasn’t found a way to make going in circles play like anything other than running in place.
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