If you're not familiar with Isaiah Rashad and his music, you should take some time out and go through his short discography right now. Like, right now–stop reading this post and go to his Soundcloud NOW. During the summer, rumors and speculations were flying around that foretold this young Tennessee native's potential signing with Top Dog Entertainment. The label that Kendrick Lamar and the rest of the Black Hippies call home would be adding another hardworking underground lyricist, who has the potential to become a major force in the game. Whether it was true or not, the Internet was excited to hear what this previously unknown emcee would do. A possible TDE cosign practically ensures that his music will maintain a high level of excellence and relevance in the near future.
Yet after the initial excitement, the 20-year-old rapper practically disappeared. While his Soundcloud and Twitter follower numbers swelled, he released only one feature during the last nine months. Although fans were looking to get acquainted with his music and this time would allow them to catch up, a lot wanted to see if he could continue crafting interesting songs that were worthy of the TDE signing.
Today, they finally revived their answer in the form of a new song, "Shot U Down". Isaiah, taking a little bit out of Kendrick's "Control" book, decides to rap at his fellow emcees. Calling out soft and phony rappers, who he will inevitably shoot down. However, he goes deeper than that. He questions all of the superfluous aspects of the culture, including the freshmen title. Even though the hook is only sung towards the end, it will burn itself in your memory. The production is driven by a beautiful flute sample. The juxtaposition between the relaxed beat and the increasingly hyped vocals creates an interesting dynamic that made it easy to continue pressing the replay button.
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Isaiah Rashad showed that he can rap with the best of them and deserves to be mentioned with TDE. "Shot U Down" is quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks of the month. It is only the tip of the iceberg though, you should really give his entire discography a listen.
