Most of Us Would Be Embarrassed to Write a Song Like This, but Isaiah Rashad Said It Was One of His Easiest

Some people find it hard to be candid about their feelings and their traumas. Instead, they’ll bottle it up and keep it to themselves, no matter how unhealthy it may be. It takes tremendous courage for them to be honest and vulnerable. But an artist like Isaiah Rashad is unflinchingly open about their struggles, making albums like The Sun’s Tirade and IT’S BEEN AWFUL where he’ll bare himself completely.

On the latter album in particular, he reflects deeply on the experiences that informed his everyday struggles. Take “Act Normal”, where he candidly talked about how being exposed to pornography early in his childhood warped his brain drastically. With time, he grew desensitized to sex, believing that what he saw was normal. “Maybe it was love, then sex, then sadism/Watching all that porn in the morn’ might change you,” Isaiah Rashad raps.

Where some artists shy away from exposing their past and their flaws, the Chattanooga rapper didn’t struggle at all. In a conversation with Cole Cuchna of Dissect Podcast, Rashad admitted that songs like “Act Normal” are actually easier to write than others. Ultimately, the production lets him know early on how he wants to approach a record. With “Act Normal”, there was a spiritual inkling to be so transparent about his past.

Isaiah Rashad Opens Up About One of His Rawest Songs ‘Act Normal’

“When I heard the beats, it was like… ‘I got this responsibility to get this off.’ Especially ‘Act Normal’”, Rashad shared. “The blurring of it, from it being an expression of love to just being sex to it being like a self-inflicting wound of seek and destroy through other people.”

The writing process on IT’S BEEN AWFUL in general was a lot more seamless and cathartic. In an interview with Billboard, Isaiah Rashad admitted that the writer’s block he used to struggle with didn’t bother him as much anymore.

“With this whole album, I just wrote. We’d be in the studio for days, and I wouldn’t be hittin’ something I wanted to hit. Sometimes, you just wanna say something, and there’s a specific type of way you wanna say it. You wanna sound cool or prophetic or to nail whatever kinda hook you goin’ for. But I reflected more than anyone,” Isaiah Rashad said.

“For me, I don’t think writer’s block exist no more. Seeing you and talking to you today, I might wanna go write a verse about your life. That’s kinda where I’m at right now. I used to be so sprung on what’s in front of me.”

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage