A decade ago, American rapper Isaiah Rashad signed with the hip-hop industry’s buzziest label: Top Dawg Entertainment, which had also launched Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q at the time. After his record Civia Demo was received with critical acclaim, all stars seemed set for a great rap career.
It turned out differently. Rashad started making big money from music for the first time in his life, lived big, partied and became addicted to alcohol and Xanax. It led to artistic lack of inspiration and almost to bankruptcy.
Comeback album was released in 2021 The House Is Burning. The stories about his depression, drug addiction and how his family reacted to it would be framed for the first time during this tour by a backing band: OMA from Manchester, who already regularly went viral with their instrumental covers of hip-hop classics.
A pleasant surprise, because those four men played very tight and funky. Starting with some of their hit covers – Wu-Tang Clan and Ice Cube – but they also stayed in front of the main act’s set. The stories were there, just like a talented group of musicians who flawlessly interpreted both the jazzy samples and hard-clapping crunk beats.
But after less than half an hour the performance collapsed. Rashad put in long meetings with his DJ, who had to communicate continuously with the sound engineer. This often led to silences. His earbuds weren’t working properly, he fiddled with his transmitter, and there was a lot of microphone feedback coming through the speakers. And no matter how cool that band was there, it became especially annoying. For Rashad, but also for the public.
And then that voice, which barely seemed to be left halfway through the tour. He used the hoarseness to his advantage for a moment as he grabbed the choruses like a Cookie Monster. That contrasted with the cloudy samples that his DJ ran under the band. But when he couldn’t hide behind flaming beats during quiet R&B interludes, he didn’t convince because he was barely audible.
There is a beautiful story in it The House Is Burning, but unfortunately the writer and main character in Amsterdam was not able to convey them properly. And he was visibly upset about that.