Deferring the rave and praise in favor of calm and humility is to be expected from the veteran cult hero, now 30.īut ultimately, calm left the realm of possibility three songs into Rashad’s set. By squeezing his two most club-ready if uncharacteristic songs in at the end, he averted the chaos. Rashad warned the audience at the start of his set: keep it chill, don’t start pushing people around. Setting up the concert closer with “Lay Wit Ya” - a similarly riotous trunk-rattler off The House Is Burning - he left a near-frenzying crowd hanging. He had no intentions of a goodbye, let alone an encore. Just as the show was reaching the brink of chaos, as “From The Garden” entered its final chorus, the ever-reclusive Rashad fled the scene. The crowd at 20 Monroe Live in Grand Rapids was eager to celebrate his hard-earned redemption arc to give Rashad his flowers.īut he had no interest in receiving them. Since the powerhouse label TDE scooped him up as a gem in the rough in 2014, turbulence in his personal life has hindered Rashad’s professional career. Just seeing Rashad take the stage in good health felt like a triumph in and of itself.įresh off his long-awaited follow-up The House Is Burning, Rashad is making a stellar case for comeback rapper of the year. He went to rehab, lost nearly all his money and stopped making art.
In the five year absence since his last album, Chattanooga-raised rapper Isaiah Rashad had been to hell and back.
