The Sun’s Tirade explores the human experience with unflinching honesty. And while we would never water down the seriousness of a drug addiction, it would be a shame to sensationalize an artist’s struggles rather than celebrate the art that comes out of it. His last project, Cilvia Demo, dropped two years ago, and in our fast-paced culture, that’s enough to be considered a disappearance. When Isaiah began releasing music again, his struggle with alcohol and Xanax tended to become the focus of media coverage surrounding The Sun’s Tirade, his album that dropped last Friday. Isaiah Rashad is sitting on a worn-in couch, laid back in untied high-top Vans and a baseball cap, ashing a joint on a side table.įor some reason, there’s a common conception in the hip-hop community that Rashad has been missing. We pass through a large studio space packed with recording equipment and soundboards, and finally arrive in a small, smoky backroom.
The walls are strewn with album plaques and instruments. It’s getting dark outside, and I’m nervously unsure of my whereabouts until TDE’s Matt Miller cracks the front door open and leads me into a dark entryway then through a number of hallways.
Railroad tracks and a couple of dumpsters flank an unremarkable stucco building. “Your destination is on the right,” Siri tells me as I come to a dead-end in Santa Monica.