Starting with a deep dive into comic books and expanding vastly from there, Isaiah Rashad was able to tell his own narrative to the Fader and explain some of the pitfalls that have created his unintentionally enigmatic nature.
During his new cover story interview with the publication, the Top Dawg Entertainment artist detailed how his addictive personality resulted in him depleting his bank account. After amassing some money from the success of his 2016 album The Sun’s Tirade, he invited his friends to come live with him in Los Angeles. This led to him getting drunk before noon and funding all their expensive habits.
“And then…I ended up sleeping on my homie’s couch for like four or five months,” Isaiah said. “It was the quickest fall from grace I could ever imagine.”
As he tried to pull himself out of this hole and create, things only worsened. Rashad would constantly show up to studio sessions drunk and high, to the point other TDE members started referring to him as Bobby Brown.
“I was really disgruntled,” he told the magazine. “Instead of just explaining myself, I just assumed that n***as knew. Or I would just be drunk spazzing. And nobody hears that. They just hear that you’re drunk. You know they called me Bobby Brown? That shit hurt the fuck out of my feelings. That’s the worst type of vibe ever.”
After wrecking his car and realizing how close he was to broke, he moved back to his mother’s home in Chattanooga, Tennessee despite two having critically acclaimed full-length projects.
TDE founder Top Dawg ordered Rashad back to Los Angeles in hopes that working would help him recover. Yet Rashad grew so uninspired that he was forced to tell Top about his drinking habit and financial woes.
“If I drink a small quantity of alcohol, I can find myself going back to the store like a zombie for more,” he explained to Fader. “It’s some shit that a lot of people don’t understand. A lot of people think it’s like a game. I didn’t know how strong alcoholism is either. But you really can’t fuck around with that shit if you know that you have it in the family.”
Top immediately checked Rashad into rehab. There, Isaiah made genuine connections with other people in recovery even though he was trying to keep his identity a secret. Soon the children of other patients and employees started to recognize Rashad and would even try to sneak autographs for their loved ones.
“When their kids came to visit, I was like, ‘Why’s this fucking child looking at me so weird?’” Rashad jokingly recalled. “The very next day, all the nurses were sneaking autographs for their kids from me. That was weird.”
Rashad came out of rehab inspired. He was able to record his upcoming album The House is Burning while maintaining “California sober.” Rashad is releasing the first single from The House is Burning—“Lay Wit Ya” featuring Duke Deuce—on Friday.
