Isaiah Rashad Returns With New Album “It’s Been Awful”

Isaiah Rashad has released his new album, It’s Been Awful. The project is his first full-length since 2021’s The House is Burning and continues a pattern of long silences between records. The album arrives during another unsettled political moment, but Rashad steers clear of broad commentary. Instead, he zeroes in on personal struggle, letting his own weariness and small victories echo a wider unease.

Rashad named OutKast, Goodie Mob, and Organized Noize as core influences, yet the sound is less a Southern rap exercise than a warm, porch-sitting sprawl. The production leans inviting and melodic, even when darkness seeps into the verses. Hooks are immediate. “GTKY” balances a sweet, lovesick refrain with wounded verses. “Same Shit” builds its chorus from a plainspoken inventory of daily friction. “Boy in Red” reunites Rashad with longtime collaborator SZA for one of the album’s most memorable cuts.

Features are kept to a minimum. Rashad shoulders nearly all the vocal work himself, a choice that sharpens the album’s solitary feel. Dominican Fike appears on “Cameras,” a guest turn that introduces a pop-leaning vocal texture into the album’s otherwise grounded Southern palette.

It’s Been Awful is out now.