Isaiah Rashad

I didn't want to have a lot of B words. Now you want to say bitch a lot. I got so many women in my family. Like, me and my brothers are like the only men in our family. After a while and with different, you know, events in my life made me kind of reflect on my own perspective. And I'm like, okay, I can still be successful without, like, being a pig. Right. Sometimes it's easy, though, to lean on that as a writer, especially as a dude, to be like, fuck a bitch.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And that shit didn't make sense. It's like it made me feel weak after a while. Like, even listening to that kind of shit.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

It's like that's coming from a lack of self love.

Kol Kushna

This episode is presented by Sierra Nevada. Life's about embracing the haze. What does that mean? Living in the moment, seeing where the night takes you, being up for the adventure. And there's no better way to embrace it than with. Hazy Little Thing by Sierra Nevada. Hazy, citrusy, smooth, juicy but not sweet. Hoppy but not bitter. America's best selling hazy ipa for good reason. Hazy little thing. Enjoy responsibly. Welcome, everyone, to a very special episode of Dissect. I'm your host, Kol Kushna. Today we're honored to have Isaiah Rashad here to dissect his brand new album. It's been awful.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you for having me.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Thanks for coming on, man.

Isaiah Rashad

Hell yeah.

Kol Kushna

Congratulations on a very fantastic body of work.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you.

Kol Kushna

How's it feel now that it's out?

Isaiah Rashad

It's relief, I guess you could say. I'm always, like, looking forward. So where I used to be kind of amped about dropping it, I'm like, how can I make sure I keep promoting this? So people, you know, outside of the cult. Yeah. It gets attached to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Well, hopefully today's conversation helps. I got a thousand questions about the album, and I got a lot of lyrics and themes and stuff I want to talk to you about. But I like to start my conversations off with getting a little to know your relationship with music a little bit more.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Question I like to ask are artists is, you know, there's a moment in our lives in which music is something that we hear just kind of in the background and at some point it transforms into something that we have a real deep, meaningful relationship with. I'm wondering when that happened for you and if there was like an artist or album or a song, even that, like, made that transformation possible.

Isaiah Rashad

I'd say it's this guy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Bell, he was my high school band instructor. So around middle school, high school, when I was playing the clarinet and all that, I got into garage band. And that's what really convinced me and got me into, like, the active love of, like, making music, just getting garage band artists specifically. I'm from Chattanooga, so the first artist like that really did that for me was Usher. Oh, really, man?

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Do you remember, like, a song or an album specifically?

Isaiah Rashad

U S H E R. Which one is that one? I don't. I should know this. I'm such a. It's one of the. It's on the My Way album.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

It was the My Way album that really did it for me.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

All right.

Isaiah Rashad

But especially around 8,701. That was like, 2002, maybe, something like that. Yeah, my aunt gave me that. And I was convinced at that moment that I couldn't, like, be a singer for real.

Kol Kushna

You could not be a singer because

Isaiah Rashad

I couldn't do that. But I definitely was like, man, it got me into songwriting plus, you know, lyric books and stuff. They used to be in the back of CDs, right? Yeah, I've always been, like, in a literature, so. Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Kind of went hand in hand, but definitely middle school. Mr. Bell.

Kol Kushna

Shout out. Again.

Isaiah Rashad

Shout out, Mr. Bill.

Kol Kushna

So you're into. What kind of literature were you into originally?

Isaiah Rashad

My mom just had me into a lot of, like, you know, black autobiographical name, a civil rights icon or staple. And she had me reading that. That was cool punishment. She just had me reading and writing a dictionary just for. And eventually it became practice and stuff.

Kol Kushna

That's. I've got kids. That's actually a really good idea. Force them to write. Do you remember, like, the first song

Isaiah Rashad

you wrote or the first rap, man, I might have it. I might be able to have somebody actually send it to me.

Kol Kushna

Like, I would love that.

Isaiah Rashad

It was like the 9th or 10th grade. We were recording on those MacBook Pros.

Kol Kushna

Is it pro the laptop or the huge. With the colorful.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they were like. When they first got flat. When they first got flat, it was like those where it were like, that shit was tight, you know what I'm saying? But it had, like, a mic at the top. So you go on GarageBand, you upload your beat or whatever. And we were going in a tech lab when nobody was there, like, probably during lunch or whatever, and just flow. So I was about to flunk, like, ninth grade, because I was spending, like, my first half of. My first half of school trying to get the whatever rap I can get in. You know what I'm saying? That type of shit.

Kol Kushna

Do you remember any lyrics specifically?

Isaiah Rashad

No. I was corny, though. It was like some machismo. Yeah, macho, macho. I'm the.

Kol Kushna

Of course you don't know.

Isaiah Rashad

My mama told me not to listen to them no more. And ever since I'm riding in my Honda solo a photo, it's kind of busted. It get me to my girlfriend house so I can bust it.

Kol Kushna

Has your relationship with music changed since it's become your career?

Isaiah Rashad

I look for days where it's like, let me quit code switching. I look for days where it's not work. Like yesterday it was work. And I knew when I walked into it I wouldn't go on to do it. But other days is like, what flow can I catch? Or more or less, how can I impress myself? Like, on an artistic level?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, that's really what keep me going.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Like just inner entertainment.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

So it does feel like work sometimes, but still at its best when I'm still like that connection to it, when

Isaiah Rashad

I'm not in a good headspace or in the head space that I want to be in is work. It's. Cause I haven't done anything, like, probably that day, like, if I get up, go to the gym, have a little salad, then go. That's literally my routine sometimes. And then go straight to the studio without stopping in like the LACMA or taking a walk somewhere then. Yeah. Cause I haven't stimulated my mind. So it's like work mode. Right.

Kol Kushna

Okay. Is music for you, like a reflection of your life, or is it a way to change your life? Do you find, like, you are able to change yourself through your music, or is it more like a reflection or maybe both?

Isaiah Rashad

Maybe both, yeah. Because I definitely will go back and listen to stuff that I wrote before and I'll be like, man, why was I thinking like that? Or, you know. Yeah, it'll be something I'm not too proud of. More or less.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So it'll go from there. And I guess you could say it's a reflection or review for me. I'm reviewing.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Or reviewing my thoughts, gathering them, and I guess, like, trying to make a comprehensive or easy to understand story out of it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Well, I wanted to get into the album, but before we get to the music, I wanted to acknowledge the rollout, which I thought was really cool.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you.

Kol Kushna

So for those that don't know, there was like a four episode, I think you called it the Sonny Roshi. TV episodes.

Isaiah Rashad

Is that right? It's your dj, DJ Sonny Roshi, coming to you live on WWR Worldwide Underground Radio, the people's radio.

Kol Kushna

So for those that weren't from. Aren't familiar with it, how would you describe the kind of the story that these episodes tell?

Isaiah Rashad

I guess to sum it up, WWR Worldwide Underground Radio also. Yeah.

Kol Kushna

DJ Sonny Roshi is your character, I would say. Right?

Isaiah Rashad

It's one of my aliases. One of my few aliases. Yeah. But it was, I guess, like a visualization of how I kind of was going about. Well, you can say there's an analogy about hallucinations and psychosis with drugs in there.

Kol Kushna

Right. Because I'm like, the date, the road trip.

Isaiah Rashad

I'm talking to myself. All these people, all these characters in it are just in my head. Nobody's there. Except, you know, maybe like, gas station clerk or waitress.

Kol Kushna

Waitress, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But outside of that, nobody's there. It's really just me dealing. It's like a visualization of me dealing with. With myself or the uncomfortableness that sometimes people have or sometimes I've had being alone, you know, when being alone feels dangerous.

Kol Kushna

In the early episodes, so you're broadcasting your music, and we see, like, Schoolboy Q trying to tune into the radio station. Then SZA tries to do the same thing, but the reception's going in and out. I think it's the beginning of the same shit music video. There's a distorted connection. So there's this.

Isaiah Rashad

You could kind of take that. You could kind of take even. Even that is like a representation of a desire to directly connect with people.

Kol Kushna

That's all right.

Isaiah Rashad

Especially through music and from. Either from artist to artist or just to the fan base, like, I hate calling it that, but the technical term for it, because they just. They support, man. I guess that is what a fan is, though. It just feels like pedestally.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Sitting on one.

Kol Kushna

Community.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, this is community. Like an active community. You know what I mean?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So it's like my desire to give them an unfiltered version of what might be going through my head. Because a lot of times I can get overly poetic and just kind of mask whatever I'm actually feeling behind a bunch of stuff. But you have to dig through, dissect to get.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, well, I mean, we'll talk about when we get to the music, but I mean, you. You seem to be more transparent on this album. I think I read somewhere, was it for this album where you said, like, Kendrick was an inspiration in terms of someone saying, like, he had Told me

Isaiah Rashad

the last album, but it applied heavier on this one. Because every time I put something out, I'm trying to figure out, from an artistic standpoint, how can I do better? And while allowing myself just to make whatever I'm feeling like making at that time. And then from a technical aspect, I'm trying to figure out, how could I. Because at the end of the day, I'm an entertainer, and you want to reach as many people as possible. So I'm like, what could I do to tweak this to get me closer to the championship, per se?

Kol Kushna

Okay, well, let's talk about the women, because they're super fascinating to me in the story. So you're driving on this road trip. You see two women on the side of the road. They ask where you're going. You're saying, I don't have a destination. They end up getting in the car with you, and they're always hungry, which is, I thought was really clever.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Insatiable appetites.

Kol Kushna

Which leads me to, I think, what they symbolize, or at least one of them is. So there's the last episode. You guys are sitting down at a diner, and one orders scrambled eggs, one orders over easy. Over easy. And I think, at least it seems pretty clear that that's a kind of a symbol of what they represent. You have scramble. So what does it say about you?

Isaiah Rashad

It's messy. It's in pieces, but it's still together. And then we have that over easy, over that.

Kol Kushna

Running premature.

Isaiah Rashad

Hey, mister,

Kol Kushna

I think you say about the over easy, runny eggs, you say escapism. Flip it how you want to flip it, but eventually it comes running out. So what. What were these women representing in the rollout?

Isaiah Rashad

Man. Okay, I guess it's gonna sound odd, but, like, kind of me, like, to an extent. And I don't. I don't like to beat it over the head, but it was like the. The duality. Not even the duality, but, like, the exploration of, like, I might not have been able to get it out as thoroughly as I wanted to, but it was an exploration between my relationship with women and then my relationship with gender roles and then my relationship with drugs all kind of wrapped up into, like, one package, right? Yeah, Yeah.

Kol Kushna

I got. I think I definitely got, like. I took the hunger aspect of it as, like. Yeah. Insatiable. A craving for escapism.

Isaiah Rashad

Escapism. But overindulgence, too.

Kol Kushna

Right?

Isaiah Rashad

You know what I mean? Just a craving for more without. While on this figurative road trip, trying to figure out why sometimes I'm not dissatisfied with myself.

Kol Kushna

Right. Well, escapism feels like it's a pretty heavy theme on the album. I don't know if. I don't know if you're intentionally doing this, but it seems like just like, naturally, maybe from your life experiences coming up. Yeah. Right. I've always found myself running, which is the runny eggs. Right?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Well. And then a lot of the imagery in the music videos, it's same shit too. Where you're, like, running. Right?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Which is. I mean, what are you running from, exactly?

Isaiah Rashad

Myself, even if you go to the end of the video, like, where I catch myself. Right. You know what I mean?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

It's more that the biggest obstacle itself.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

At least that's my opinion. Right. Besides the government.

Kol Kushna

Well, we'll talk about that because that comes up a bunch too, actually. So there is a very specific question. I like to geek out on details, if you haven't figured that out already. But I like it. So your album ends with the 7:19 freestyle. And then in the diner scene, episode four, it. When it does the jump cut, I think. Yeah. The fast forward where it says 7 hours and 19 minutes later. What the fuck does 7:19 mean? I've been trying to figure what this means because it's 77 hours and 19 minutes later. And the 719 freestyle.

Isaiah Rashad

It's okay. I name the titles to my songs either based off what I was doing when I did it or something that kind of, to me, sums up what the song means to me in, like, one word. And I literally made it on July 19th.

Kol Kushna

Oh, okay. Nothing deep about it.

Isaiah Rashad

I made it July 19th, like, last year.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

All right. It could be deeper than that.

Kol Kushna

I was looking up area codes and, like, I.

Isaiah Rashad

That up. I should have. I should have just bullshit it.

Kol Kushna

No, it's good. I like the honesty. We need that. Okay. But so album title. As we get closer to the music, it's been awful. I feel like the first time I heard this title. I'm not alone in this either, because what I've read online and stuff, like, it just was like someone, like, captured it. Like, it just resonated so much with the moment. And I know you're talking about your personal life, but there was something about

Isaiah Rashad

just a lot of it, though.

Kol Kushna

A lot of it.

Isaiah Rashad

A lot of. When I come up with titles, it's to be kind of broad, like, from person to person. I like that. That's why I like. I like. I like to think of them as, like, book titles, you know, Take it how you want to Take it. Right. So it's Is definitely, like, a partial part of it is a representation of my life. But it's definitely, like, just how everything felt like what you said.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. I think. And you address that on the album, too. I mean, obviously it's very personal, but there are moments where you, like, directly address government and, like, the bullshit that they're feeding us and, like, just kind of capturing the. The kind of universal experience that then, like, compounds the personal experience. Right. Like, especially in these times. Well, but you had the original title of All My Heroes Are Junkies, right?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, it was a spin on an Ed Brubaker book that I love. Yeah.

Kol Kushna

That has the same title.

Isaiah Rashad

All My Heroes have Been Junkies was his book title. And it's like a murder mystery. And I felt like I was kind of making somewhat of a this chapter little story of my life or whatever's been going on. So I thought that had been a cool, like, homage. Especially because I'm such a huge Just Literature fan, period.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But then I was like, with more respect to just being an Arthur, maybe I should just come up with something original.

Kol Kushna

Where did. So when. Do you remember when you came up

Isaiah Rashad

with it's been awful, Mama. It's been awful? And then I thought, this is too specific. Cause especially the battle was how I was gonna spell mama. Was it M O, A, M O, M, M A or M A, M A? And even then I was like, I don't wanna use this. It's too much.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

My people identify with things in a different kind of.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't know. And so I just cut it down. It's been awful.

Kol Kushna

Well, Mama, I mean, I have a question about that later. Cause your mom comes up on, like, over half the songs, I feel like. Yeah, and I'll save that question until we get there. But I did want to ask you about the album art, too, because I can't. Where. I think I saw it on Instagram. It revealed that it was shot at the Chattanooga Public Library Auditorium.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

So is there any significance to that location to you? Because Chattanooga, for those that don't know, is your.

Isaiah Rashad

I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in the library.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

A lot of time in the computer labs and the kids level. My mom was pursuing being a teacher at the time until she pivoted into being a hairstylist again, full time. But we spent a lot of time there, me and my little brothers. My brother helped me produce this album, spent a gang of time there. And I just like. I like to timepiece things that are important to me, maybe. And I'd be hoping that it's important to other people from even, like, the shot you down video. The shot you down video is at a project building, like, complex that was about to be torn down. And I kind of want to commemorate the memory of that. And I do that with a lot of stuff, like, with certain lyrics that I might put in songs. It's just commemoration of things that I kind of did in myself as a child.

Kol Kushna

It looks good, too. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

The Red Alex or Stanley Kubrick thing type of vibes, if you know for sure.

Kol Kushna

Okay, so let's get into, I guess into the music itself. The first question I have is about the. Well, it seems like you're a world builder pretty intentionally. Like, the rollout is exemplary of building a world. And then the music. To me, especially on this album, I think any fan of you understands, like, you have a very distinct idiosyncratic sound from, you know, starting from the very first projects. But this one, to me, stood out in that it feels like the most cohesive sonic piece you have from start to finish in terms of production, where everything. There's sonic variety. Thank you. But it all feels of the same world. I'm wondering how you went about crafting that, because it feels like more than beat selection. It feels like intentional choices with mixing or, like, the effects on your voice. Like, how deliberate were you in, like, building the. The consistency of that.

Isaiah Rashad

I wanted to take the best parts, and thank you for saying that, too. That was a nice. Very nice compliment. I wanted to take what I viewed as some of my more favorite parts of my styles, the different styles that I implement, and kind of put them in one place but without the roughness of it going from every different world. I kind of wanted to. Like you said, I wanted to be in one world, but I wanted to hit, like, the alternative inflections of, like, the nothing to hides and the straightforward storytelling of act normal or the slippery, like, type of just woozy shit of how new sublime confessional kind of shit could be. Those are, like, some of my favorite parts of all kinds of music. Like, so mostly I wanted to be something that you could dance to or, like, ride to or cry to. Those are, like, the. Yeah, the main three.

Kol Kushna

Try to hit measure. Like, in terms of, like, the. Just the sonic intention, though. Yeah. Are you. But how. Like. Like, are you part of the mixing process? Because it feels. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, are you kind of directing, like, how things should just sound I'm now

Isaiah Rashad

more than I used to. I used to be so hands on that I would fuck the mix up because I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. Like, I know how I wanted to sound, but I'm not thinking about a lot of times how it's translating from this area. Like playing it in here or playing it in like a bucket or playing a really new car, playing it on a boat or wherever. Playing in the alley. Like, so I definitely have sonically how I want it to feel texturally, like, on a texture. On a texture. Texturally isn't a word, is it?

Kol Kushna

I mean, that's a great word for what the album experience is, though. It's very textural. Whatever. That's a word.

Isaiah Rashad

I get it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I wanted to, like. Cause if you listen to it in headphones, you can hear all these different voices that we put into it that depending on. If you listen to how your speaker in your car is tuned, you're not gonna hear that. Yeah, like. But I definitely wanted to, like, put you in a world, bro.

Kol Kushna

No, no, I'm glad you pointed that out because there are. You'll hear something new on every single song with every single listen, whether it's a background vocal or just like a little production thing that comes in and out. But the thing is, what I'm trying to get at here is like, even though all you have all these layers and things, it still doesn't. It never sounds like, like, dynamically. It never gets to like a 10.

Isaiah Rashad

I'm doing my best impression of, like, what. Not. Not for this. They're gonna misquote me for real. But like. Like how George Clinton would be or the super eclectic outkast songs like Heavy Stack. Layered. Yeah, like, I always liked that kind of stuff. And I always got. I understood, even though I didn't always like. And shout out to what I'm about to who I'm about to say, like Rick Ross and Currency and Even like early two, between 2000 and 2006, rappers used to stack their verses super, super in a way that I understood it, but I never liked it. So, like. But it was emulating this force that you get the same way you get from all those heavily stacked. From those. That type of stuff. So like, at the end of the day though, it's like your ears is reacting to, like, you know, those layers. It's being tickled by it. It likes it. So I try to incorporate that.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, but what's cool about it though is like, usually when you're stacking stuff. It brings the dynamic up. Right. For yours, it's like. It's. It's almost like dense, where it's like the volume doesn't increase, but the density does.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

That's like. That's how you maintain the. The kind of more understated sound. That's what I think is so brilliant about the album is that it does have all these details, but it still sounds very. Bare bones is the right. The wrong word.

Isaiah Rashad

But no minimal, though.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

We try. We. We. I've tried to have a lot of those type of, like, details for enthusiasts. Damn near.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I understand that everybody's looking for.

Kol Kushna

There's people like us, but I like

Isaiah Rashad

having everything and everything. Like, I'm trying to put six guitars and I'm like. And I'm like. But we can't make it clash, right? We can. I'm trying to do everything, but we can't, you know?

Kol Kushna

Yeah. One of the details I love about this record, sonically, is the horns.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Was there an intention. I was talking to your brother before this. Before this.

Isaiah Rashad

We're band boys, man. We come from playing in a band.

Kol Kushna

Okay. Okay. We played clarinet. I didn't know that song. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Play clarinet. My brother played the trombone and my other brother played. I think the tuba sound played. But yeah. And we're constantly listening to just whatever jazz is on the radio.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know what I mean? That's the channel that I usually have it on.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. I love the. Especially in like the middle part of the album. It feels like the horns are more present, but I love how it's like they make sense on all the songs. Even though I want to build it up.

Isaiah Rashad

Especially like how we were. Once we realized how we were going to place the album and how I was going to have it set up trackless wise, I'm like, okay, so the singles are in the front. I'm not always a fan of that. I kind of like have them in the middle, in the back. Whatever.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But Cameras.

Kol Kushna

Cameras comes pretty late.

Isaiah Rashad

Not a single yet.

Kol Kushna

Oh, I assumed it's going to be, though, maybe.

Isaiah Rashad

But I'm glad you have a respect for it like that. But definitely, like, wanted to get. Wanted to progressively get more musical.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

And then kind of end back on a really basic level. Or if you want to call it 719 basic. But like a. Here's rap at the end. You. I mean. Yeah, kind of.

Kol Kushna

Okay. So I do have some specific questions. I tried to pick, like a handful of songs that I think could Represent, like, larger themes and kind of consistent motifs that are the album addresses. So we'll start with the new sublime.

Isaiah Rashad

I'm cut from a sinful nation I feel afflicted Falling over Ask me who I'm not been up since they sent my sister back to jail Back when we were papa Saying if I romanticize them Percocets I might relapse again Giving

Kol Kushna

up One of my favorite tracks on the album. Thank you. So the opening line is so good, dude, and it's so immediate. Like, you get this little. Just like two or three second little production introduction. And then it's like you get your first verse, like, right away. And the opening line, I'm cut from a sinful nature and I feel afflicted did you. When you were writing this verse in that line, did you know it was going to be the album opener?

Isaiah Rashad

After I made this song, I was hoping it took. It was the intro for a couple weeks.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

And then I was like, this is too heavy and, like, too direct. I need, like. You know, I had, like, these different ideas strategically how I want to do the track list. At first, it was like to not be so direct with and not so personal, and it just be all music. No, not music. No message. But mostly just music.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

And then message towards the end, you know, or reflection towards the end of the album. But then it just seemed to make sense to get it out of the way in a respectful kind of way that.

Kol Kushna

I mean, I think, like, this is my. Might be my brain, but I think of, like, Adam and Eve when I hear that line, like, the original sin. I'm cut from the sinful nature, which

Isaiah Rashad

I was thinking about my lineage, right? I was like, the men that raised me and the men that didn't raise me, who I didn't know in my family, like, I never met my granddad. And, you know, you go off the stories of all these type of people, and I'm like, am I, like, cursed? You know, type of shit?

Kol Kushna

I understand specific to your story, but I feel like that is the story of man. You know what I mean? And that's. That's why I love it as an album opener, because it. It balances the line, at least to my ears, of, like, personal and universal

Isaiah Rashad

as an artist, man, like, as a writer. Like, the. The best compliment I could have is when somebody takes my music, it's personal to their life, like, more. Sometimes even more personal. And I take it, like, if. When they. If you feel like this is you. Yeah, I got. You know,

Kol Kushna

I think all honest music. Everyone relates to honest music. You can tell when someone's being 100% themselves. And I think there's moments on this album where you're doing exactly that. And I think the specifics at that point don't matter. It's the universal. You're capturing something about the human experience that everyone connects to when you're being dishonest. I think I feel that way about

Isaiah Rashad

Bill Withers, a lot of his music.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah, I think it. I think all the great artists had it. That's. Yeah, that's the connection between all of them. So there's not a ton of, like, rapity rap, for lack of a better word, on the album in terms of like.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, what's rabbity rap?

Kol Kushna

Like, entendre. Like, layered stuff and like.

Isaiah Rashad

Oh, yeah, that's never really been my style.

Kol Kushna

Never really been your. But there is a moment here on the opening verse where you say, giving up my home, I've been the Clarkus Kent at my lowest. Which has this play on Lois, but also Lois, as in Superman's girlfriend.

Isaiah Rashad

Giving up my home, I've been the Clarkist Kent at my lowest.

Kol Kushna

And it seems like this idea of Superman and superpowers is one of the more consistent things, thematic things going on across the entire record. So it's established here in verse, very first 8 bar verse of the album. I'm wondering, when you say I've been at my Clarkus Kent, obviously there's ideas.

Isaiah Rashad

I'll be trying to save people before I save myself, trying to help people when I'm not either mentally fit to be doing that or at times, financially fit to be doing it. And I feel like everybody, you know what I'm saying, may be able to relate to that. But it's definitely understanding through experience that I do have a mortality. I can't. You know what I'm saying? Recognizing that. But then I guess the Superman aspect of it, too, in the flip is like, hope this don't sound crazy, but, like, on one side is understanding my mortality, but then on the other side is understanding, like, my infinite life span that I'll have from the music. So that's what comes. Like, that's where the enjoying it and being intentional about it a little more than I was. Like, I'd say on my last round. I love the Houses of Burning too. But just, like, being more intentional about. Intentional about what I'm actually saying. I'm like, this is gonna live forever. Like, I'm live forever.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's also. It seems like there's also like a. Because later on the album, you say you'd be fucking anybody on that powder makes you feel invincible.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

On the same song, you say superpower Superman. Don't overuse them. The penultimate, second to last song on the album is literally called Superpowers.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

So it seems in my reading of the album, kind of the arc of it is like doing drugs and feeling invincible, but then trying to find the real superpowers, which I assume is like, who you really are.

Isaiah Rashad

There's a certain reward and valuing yourself, that escapism through drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever you can't really get. It's a certain amount of peace you get from patients. And it sucks sometimes. I was having this conversation with my daughter about, again, going to stay on the superheroes type of thing, about the character Beast from X Men. And about. She was like, he's scary. Cause he's like a blue monster. And I'm like, well, we got a lesson for you. Here's a good one. She's like, what? I'm like, he's like that because he experimented with himself instead of accepting himself. At first, he was just a. He was a mutant. And he had huge hands, he had huge feet. But he had all these abilities he could do. He was so smart that he thought he could think his way out of the way God made him. You know, whatever you assign your creation to, you know what I'm saying? But I was talking to my kids, so, you know. Yeah, it was like that. And she was like, oh, okay. I'm like, yeah. I'm like. So it just. It took his inside reflection and made it who he was on the outside.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know?

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

There's lessons in that.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Inside representation, not reflection.

Kol Kushna

So on the third verse, you say something that also recurs. You say, it's profit over love. Again, you say the same thing on happy hour. It's profit over love.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Seems that's what we're sick about. So what does that. What's profit over love mean?

Isaiah Rashad

It's private over love again, seem like this what we think about. I promise you the new supply. I promise you the truest art. I promise not to lose myself. I promise not to shame my God. Priority of getting money over, you know, intimate moments that I feel like a lot of. A lot of people on the go, which is the reflection of, you know, where we at in the. In the world. If you. If you're in America, whatever. Everybody gotta work, man. You know, and as an artist, you know, you sacrifice birthdays you sacrifice just intimate moments that you wouldn't in another, at another space, even realizing, you know what I'm saying? I don't get to do this, or I miss this, I miss that. And in those moments, this profitable love again. I guess it was kind of off the cuff of me somewhat being like, fuck it, this is what it is. You know? But then on the other end, depending on how I'm seeing it, it's like a sad fuck. Like, damn, it's profitable love again. Yeah. I promise you the new sublime.

Kol Kushna

Well, that was my next question. What is the new sublime?

Isaiah Rashad

So the new sublime is my promise to my supporters, my fans, myself, my family of a new experience. Anytime I hop on the mic, anytime I deliver a new project, no matter if it's a grandiose concept thing or just a mixtape is gonna carry that feeling.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, a new euphoria. I promise you a change, a new sublime too. A new change. Not just that old feeling that we had.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Yeah. The whole third verse is beautiful. I promise you new sublime. I promise you the truest art. I promise not to lose myself. I promise not to shame my God.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Are you talking to someone specific or are you just talking to yourself?

Isaiah Rashad

I was talking to anybody that cared about me, you know, anybody from view, if you give a fuck about me. But it's like, I understand, you know, the albums have always been like. It's always had some type of story attached to my personal life, but I wanted to post this to just be able to give you music and to be able to, like, say, shit's great. Shit's been cool.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I've been, you know, that I've been able to take advantage of all the opportunities that have been put in front of me and all the love that I receive. And instead of just being holed up in a house or holed up wherever, not being present in that and looking for something that I'll never find, you

Kol Kushna

know, for people that find success. You know, I've always wonder. I imagine sometimes I have felt this way, even with the little success I've had with this show, was like, you receive positivity and love from strangers, essentially.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

That feels very genuine. But then it can. Sometimes you can feel, like, unworthy of it or like you're not deserving of it.

Isaiah Rashad

Imposter syndrome.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Have you ever felt like that?

Isaiah Rashad

Hell, yeah. Yeah. Hell, yeah.

Kol Kushna

It's so real, it's crazy.

Isaiah Rashad

Okay. Because sometimes I feel like I'm in this. In this fantasy by myself to where I've Used all this brain power to manifest. And I can say that, that me as a nine year old was reading the Jet magazine, looking at Masterpiece on the front, and I said, I'm going to do this. And me at 12 years old, writing poetry and watching 106 apart, and I'm looking at my mom and I'm like, I'm writing this rap and I'm like, I'mma do this. And when I'm 14 in that computer lab and we're all. It's like 10 of us doing these verses going back and forth and I hear mine back and I'm like, damn, I'm going to do this. You know, so when you do it to an extent after you get there, it's like, it's this battle of like, now what's God? What's you even in that? It's like a weird, you know, or what is God allowing me to do? How much power do I actually have in my manifestation? And what do I say? Yeah, you know, it's like. Then it's like, so if I believe it now, if I doubt it, can I not do it no more? I'm having a bad day.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

So is it all gone?

Kol Kushna

Yeah. You know, am I just a one. One trick pony or am I just

Isaiah Rashad

here to be the example for the kid from my town that's actually gonna do it? Mm.

Kol Kushna

Right?

Isaiah Rashad

And then that's like. Part of that is like kind of cool, but then a part of it is like, I want that fucking Grammy too. You know, I want. You know. Yeah, it might be arbitrary to other people, but, you know, I want. Yeah, I want things. I want tourists. I want this. I want to.

Kol Kushna

Okay, so the 144, the final chorus of the new sublime. I get tears every time I hear this part where the drums drop out and the strings come in.

Isaiah Rashad

I wish Julian was here for this.

Kol Kushna

Dude. Is that who wrote the strings on

Isaiah Rashad

that or it's how he arranged it. We put that drop there. I do shout out to Julian, man, and my mix engineer, James Hunt, but me and Julian mapped out the whole thing. I'm very proud of the part I play in producing my own tracks. Post me getting the beat.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. I mean, this moment transcends. I mean, it's what I love about music the most, you know, like where you're singing Somebody Pray for Me, I'm going crazy. And I mean, it sounds like the new sublime to me.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you.

Kol Kushna

But I rarely. Every time I hear it, I think of this word medicinal. Like there's a. When I'M hearing it, it feels like healing. Like, it feels like this. The feeling you get when you listen to gospel music. Like, that's that moment, that final stretch of the song is so good. It's so beautiful.

Isaiah Rashad

I be trying to, I have this love hate relationship with going to church.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

It's like, I love. And I'm, I probably have a problem with being present too, because my patience in, in certain places. But, like, I love the music. I want to hear the message. Or I, I, I love the message. I want to hear the music. Like one of the two is taking too long. You know what I'm saying?

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But I've always, like, been in. Fascinated with faith and people's connection to it. And I've had this respect. It was, you know, everybody goes through this. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of people go through this. I went to church a whole bunch now. I don't like church and now. But then it's like, it's a fuck church phase. And now it's like I kind of want to go to church or I kind of, I want to talk to somebody about my faith. No matter what this faith is. Like, I want to talk to somebody about my appreciation or my, the battles that I feel that the universe is throwing at me and trying to make sense of it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And sometimes with music, I feel like I hit a little part of, like, gospel that I can fuck with.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And when I do that, like, I fuck with it.

Kol Kushna

No, I mean, to me, it's like the, it's exactly what we're talking about earlier, which is like, outside of lyrics and themes and that stuff, like music just as an art form, as a. This thing you can't touch or see. Or is it.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

At its highest, at its, like, most powerful, it is, I think, touching the divine, like some of the best. You capture whatever that thing is.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. The intangible.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. And like a moment like this, like, congratulations, because.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you.

Kol Kushna

Really good.

Isaiah Rashad

That's a really crazy compliment.

Kol Kushna

Okay, so man on the Mission. This is what I'm talking about. Like sonic variety. So you come off of this gorgeous spiritual, like, string lead thing, and then you get into man on a Mission, which is like, more upbeat, but it still feels in the same universe. It doesn't feel like a big jump. Oh. And then you say, okay, when you do the Outcast, are you not. Is it break or pray?

Isaiah Rashad

Pray. Break.

Kol Kushna

Oh, it's break. Okay. I thought you said.

Isaiah Rashad

I should have said pray.

Kol Kushna

That's what I. Because you. Okay. Yeah. Maybe let Me. Let me. Let me executive produce. I thought it was. I was like, that's a twist on.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, edit that out. Yeah, I say it. Pray. Fuck it.

Kol Kushna

This episode is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. If you saw the band when they played at the bar or stopped mid festival to look at the stars Then you're ready to embrace the haze with Hazy Little Thing. Citrusy smooth and easy to drink it pairs with nights that don't need a script Brewed with the purest ingredients for finest quality There's a reason it's America's bestselling Hazy ipa. Embrace the haze with Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. Enjoy responsibly. Okay, but man on a Mission. Great track. Upbeat track. Natural. Question is, what's the mission? What's taking you back and forth?

Isaiah Rashad

The mission, basic as. Because, you know, get some money. Get some money. They've made this into a capitalistic capitalist supremely about money.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Everything's about money type of thing. So I'd be, you know, I'm saying, remiss to not be thinking about money when I wake up in the morning. Yeah, check out his family. But the taking me back and forth is the. Why? Why am I doing this?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Why am I, you know, trying to respect the art and not making it be work? Right. That'll take. That'll run me up a wall, you know, sometimes. Because depending on the mind frame that you are and not all these songs, usually these songs will get out anyway. But, like, depending on the mind frame I'm having, I'll find myself writing some shit that I don't feel like connected to. And then I have to reflect and be like, damn, why did I write this? Why did I just try to make something for people to like instead of making something that sounded good? And I hope. And I hope it connects with somebody.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Cause I feel like that's when I'm at my purest, when I'm just like, oh, this sounds crazy.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Not. This is free. Then in fucking Ohio. I'm making it specifically for these kids. Like, and don't be honest.

Kol Kushna

Did those. Any of those songs make it on the album?

Isaiah Rashad

Hell, no. They never do.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

They never make it. I could be proud to say that.

Kol Kushna

That's awesome.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. But then also just the. The addictions were taking me back and forth. Right. As a man on a miss, you know, fucking. My reward system is, you know. You know, so just the back and forth of. From sanity to sobriety.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, superhuman isms, the three S's.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Really Great opening lines on this, too. There's like this double rhyme scheme happening. My mama don't want no drugs up in this house Hide the dust I'm levitating off this love and when you doubt, it's like you flushed it that baby don't know the price to hit these heights don't you touch it My mind was screaming, jump, jump, jump My

Isaiah Rashad

mama don't want no drugs up in this house had to dust I'm levitating off this love and when you out, it's like you flushed that baby don't know the price to hit these heights don't you touch My mind was screaming,

Kol Kushna

jump, jump, jump high so in my reading of these lines, it's like you're building three heights. You have the drug high. Levitating off of love high.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

And price to hit these heights, I'm assuming might be, like, success.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

And then you say, my mind was screaming, jump, jump, jump.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Is that.

Isaiah Rashad

My mom was screaming, get out of here.

Kol Kushna

Your mom was.

Isaiah Rashad

My mind.

Kol Kushna

Oh, your mind.

Isaiah Rashad

My mind was screaming, jump, right, Jump. Like, you know when you're on the edge.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like it. Just go. Just do it like this shit. Like, fuck this. Go make some raps in a garage. All this pressure, you know what I'm saying?

Kol Kushna

I took a darker reading to jump,

Isaiah Rashad

jump, jump oh, kill yourself, yeah all the heights, yeah. Unfortunately for this album, I wasn't really suicidal.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I've been. I've been suicidal in my life. Yeah. And I haven't felt those feelings, like, for about, like, six years.

Kol Kushna

That's good.

Isaiah Rashad

About five, six years. I've been better on myself. So. You know, people do get past it.

Kol Kushna

Kids, right? Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

That's important.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But, yeah, definitely. Like, it was more like quit. My mind was screaming, quit, quit, quit. Quit drugs, quit everything. Quit drugs, quit rapping, quit or professionally rapping.

Kol Kushna

Oh, really?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, it's like, just the factors to me. I'm all about having fun, and when business supersedes it being fun, I just want to have fun. So the back and forth is like, well, you want to. You better pay your fucking bills, you know?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

That's the back and forth.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I never quit making music, though.

Kol Kushna

Well. Yeah. Well, I wanted to talk to you about your mom because she does come up on this song right away. I mean, I just wrote down a few examples, but there's a ton on superficially say my mama intervening. I want to see a cleaner or see you cleaner, happy. I already say, heard my mama cry, but that's not enough. To bring me home.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

So what is she? Seems like the voice of reason.

Isaiah Rashad

My mom is a huge character. She's my mom.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Right. In my life. Yeah. She's one of my best friends.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

If not the. The best friend.

Kol Kushna

Is she that voice of reason most of the time?

Isaiah Rashad

Definitely. I hear in my head sometimes being like, don't do that. That's five to ten.

Kol Kushna

Well, that's interesting that she's almost in the title of the album, too.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. But she's on the COVID though. The alternative cover in front of the trailer. That's me and my mom.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Why. So why did the title, I guess, have her in it? Why Mama? It's been awful.

Isaiah Rashad

I think she's who opinion matters the most to me.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, at the end, you know, this whole project was like if in another. In an alternative universe or alternate universe, somewhere in the last couple years, my career completely went. And I couldn't put out an album in another universe. Right. This album is the album I made in that universe when I couldn't make nothing else. When it was like, all right, I'll just make a. I'm making it because I love making music. And I'm back in Chattanooga.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And, you know, if. If something comes with this, something comes of it. But if nothing happens, I need to get out this fix I have in my chest to record something.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. That's this album.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Okay. You made it in Chattanooga.

Isaiah Rashad

No, no, no. Okay. In my mind.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

In my mind I made this Studio City.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Okay. So verse two of this song is when we get a little bit more of the societal stuff that we were talking about earlier. So comes up in verse one, you say can he spot a lie when the government tied to it? But then verse two, you kind of really get into Elon digging through the cell phone records Everything for sale Even hell soon they'll be trying to sell the air yeah. This one, I think, really resonates, too. Paid my bills and it still don't work.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

And then ask my dog if we still on Earth Eli.

Isaiah Rashad

Through the cell phone breakers Everything for sale Even hell my soon they were trying to sit down my Pay my bills and it still don't work as my dog and we still on Earth

Kol Kushna

what are those lines saying?

Isaiah Rashad

Well, I guess with everything. Well, not. I guess I got a question. I don't be guessing with everything that's going on, you know, like, it's a data center heat wave going on on the East Coast. Right. It's a lot of. A lot of shit not to give like Elon Musk or anybody too much like airtime. But it's a lot of stuff that's going on in Tennessee that I'm aware of as far as infrastructure that they're getting to, you know what I'm saying? With a lot of places they're getting to go over city councils and over just votes to just put stuff in people's neighborhoods. And that shit was on my mind. It's a factor in me wanting to move to la. I mean, move to. Back to Tennessee or to the South. Cause, you know, California costs a lot, but you gotta pay for your freedom. Yeah, yeah, you pay for your freedom. Here you don't really pay. You pay, but you don't really get the freedom in a lot of the places with that type of stuff. So. Yeah, I mean, I have such a strong opinion of the government and stuff like that. I damn near like, don't even like sharing it now.

Kol Kushna

That makes me curious what it is.

Isaiah Rashad

It's just we're.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

More or less, we're. I'll be like, go get some money, bro. Get some money. Find somewhere you can go. Go find a community where like, maybe y' all could have a say something like what's going on in the city. But in a lot of major places you're trying to go, it's kind of. It's not gonna happen unless you go pay somebody. Some backdoor. Right.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, it's. Well, I think this idea of not

Isaiah Rashad

to be a doomer either.

Kol Kushna

No, but it's true. Like, the profit over love, it says so much, like, in terms of like,

Isaiah Rashad

you gotta go to work, man.

Kol Kushna

Well, even like the way money funnels in and the exchange between money and government is just like sickening at this point. It's like they're not even trying to hide it these days.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, it's about profit. It's about the gain, the margins. Like, human life isn't important to a lot of people unless it's like directly in front of them. And then even then somebody might walk over your body. Yeah, yeah.

Kol Kushna

All right. Same shit. There's some debate online about this song, about the cadence of this song and

Isaiah Rashad

where it comes from. I'm saying pocket full of knots too. Not nuts. I keep hearing that. And it's like, it's a pocket full of knots.

Kol Kushna

You heard it here first.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, it's the same shit.

Kol Kushna

The closest reference I thought I heard was the blow by Lil Jon. Is that the reference point of the song?

Isaiah Rashad

It was a reference to him and yeah. Gangsta Boo on the same song.

Kol Kushna

Was it the beat inspired that ref? Like, what about this song made you think of that song?

Isaiah Rashad

It might have been the beat I have. Like, maybe other artists have it too. When I hear a beat flow, kind of just hit me immediately.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, my brain does this process of elimination of finding the best one, and it's like, okay, this is the.

Kol Kushna

When it happens fast, does that mean it's a good sign that this is probably something?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Do you ever have to, like, struggle to find it and you're happy with it, or is it usually.

Isaiah Rashad

If I struggle to have to find it, I usually don't even like it after it. Like, unless I just love that beat and I need to get off something on it. But then if it becomes more about conquering a beat versus about just being free flowy, a lot of times the result is kind of.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know what I mean? So a lot of songs that I. That you've heard, it's like first 10 minutes, 15 minutes, as soon as I heard it.

Kol Kushna

Is that same with the lyrics too? Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

They kind of come. Or at least the severity of how. For real, I want to be about on the song kind of comes. Like, am I talking about my life?

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Or if. Am I just gonna. Are we just bullshitting? We smoking and bullshitting? I kind of get that.

Kol Kushna

Is that the end? Like just whatever energy and the flow

Isaiah Rashad

come together and give me. I'm like, okay, this is my. My responsibility to this as an artist. This is what it's telling me to do.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. I think a lot of artists have that experience where it's like, at a certain point, you're just serving. You're in service of something that you're. It's like you're finding something that already has higher power. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I mean, being. Being a conduit, you feel like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kol Kushna

All the time or just like the best moments.

Isaiah Rashad

The best moments. The other time is work. I'm working to feel like that. Right. You know what I mean? Even if it's like having this. I need to write something. I got. I mean, I got. I got this creative energy in my head and I need to get it out. And then after I've gotten out this song that I hate, that I hate it while I was writing it, but I had to do it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Then some easy comes and it's like, oh, shit. All of a sudden, the homie send me two beats instead of 10 instead of 10. Just really cool beats. You send me two, five, boom.

Kol Kushna

It's the universe's reward.

Isaiah Rashad

And it just. Yeah, yeah. You feel me?

Kol Kushna

Yeah. That's how it works. I feel like you got to earn. You have to earn the good luck.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

You know, or at least put yourself in the position.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Be in tune. Be ready for it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Okay. So one of the things I think really works on the album is, like, obviously it's dealing with a lot of, like, heavy topics, but you do find, like, levity and, like, there's a lot of positive self talk on the album.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

I feel like same shit is like, a good example of that because the chorus starts with, like, this kind of laundry list of drug references, but by the end of the chorus, you're talking about focusing on your meals, your plates, your estates, grass, fam plus, you know, healthier things. Was that an intentional kind of balance

Isaiah Rashad

you were trying to find with all of it? Like, this whole album was definitely. I'm like, I can't just be doomer boy. My life sucks. It's like, it's been awful, but it'll be all right if there was a full title. It's been awful, but it gets better. Yeah. You know, type of shit. So it was definitely, especially with certain artists that I like listening to, from Larry June to Mexico, DRO to, I don't know, even, like, earliest, like, type of stuff. There's like, an intentional self awareness of, like, life's okay, man.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, And I like. I like it. I wanted to incorporate that into my music moving forward.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't feel like I've been a doomer, but I've been good at, like, laughing through the pain versus just being like, here's the pain and here I am.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, and we are not the same.

Kol Kushna

Okay. So boy in red with Sza. I saw this. You said somewhere that this was inspired by girl in red. I want to be your girlfriend and princess.

Isaiah Rashad

Sonically. Sonically, to the extent I want to be a girlfriend. Like, the whimsicalness when I heard the beat, it reminded me of that.

Kol Kushna

Okay, I don't want to be your

Isaiah Rashad

friend I want to kiss your lips, princess if I was your girlfriend. And Kanye West's street lights are kind of a song full of the same lyric over and over and over again.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

You know.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, very minimal lyrics, but. And they do. They're doing two totally different things. Street lights and if I was your girlfriend doing too. But it's the simplicity of it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

I was like, okay, I don't really need to fucking write a gang of Shit to make this. Because as soon as I heard it, I'm like, oh, this one of them. This is like a eight. Just eight words, you know, it's like eight lines.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And that's it. Because, you know, I'm not trying to make you feel anything except, like, the. The easiness of it. Right. You know what I mean? I don't want. I didn't want it to feel like I was trying to write my ass off.

Kol Kushna

Well, I mean, there's still some really beautiful stuff. Like, I don't know that too. I don't know. No pain. I'm here kissing nirvanas like it's beautiful. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

See, I guess what I meant, like, I guess what I mean is for the dissection is fucking valuing my skill set that I've had over the years to where I don't have to make myself write a triple entendre for it to be effective. And that was, I guess, more so me respecting that.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I worked actually, in a car.

Kol Kushna

Oh, really?

Isaiah Rashad

You know, on the way to the

Kol Kushna

studio with the beat playing. Yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

No. What happened was I left the studio. My brother uploaded the beat onto his untitled, and I heard it because I was leaving the studio from a day of trying and not really getting what I wanted to get off.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And I heard that shit, and I was like, skirt, skirt. Had to turn around and knock this shit down. Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Oh, damn, that's cool. Well, then, so what made Sza the voice for this? Like, what?

Isaiah Rashad

She had to be.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, I mean, it's perfect.

Isaiah Rashad

As soon as I heard it, I was like, well, she got to be on the song, or I'm not putting the song out or. Or it's just gonna be like a skit, like, type of whatever. Interlude. I'm gonna make it an interlude. If she's not on it, I'm like, it sounds like me and her song. Drinking p.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. I mean, what. So you. This is from my count. This is your seventh collaboration with sza.

Isaiah Rashad

Shout out to that.

Kol Kushna

And you guys got.

Isaiah Rashad

Is that a record?

Kol Kushna

I don't know. It's actually. It's eight if you count Happy Birthday by Childish Major, which you got.

Isaiah Rashad

I count that too.

Kol Kushna

Okay, so 8.

Isaiah Rashad

It was supposed to be Happy Birthday. Childish gave me that song. And then I won't name names, but they were like, this isn't good enough for Sylvia demo. And I was like, okay.

Kol Kushna

Oh, so it was your song originally?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, no, it was his. He. Then I asked for it, gave it to me, and then I put Scissors on it and all this other stuff. And then we gave it back because we couldn't. They weren't going to put on my album. And then. So. I appreciate that.

Kol Kushna

I mean, you and SZA were signed to tde, I think like a month. Yeah, a couple months apart.

Isaiah Rashad

Same day, a week apart or something.

Kol Kushna

Oh, really? Okay. How is it. How is it seeing her. Her growth, her ascension as an artist, obviously popularity, but as an artist, I

Isaiah Rashad

think, like, I hear. You know what's crazy? I just think of her gluten allergy because I think of somebody. Somebody who is so. Who did so much and was going through so much with her health really early on and not to, like, speak for her and. But, you know, like, just the Internet and how people judge, especially the scrutiny on women. It's crazy to see, like, what was more so motivating to see the intention and the dedication she took to herself panned out on all fronts, from the not beauty stuff to everything outside of it, to the van stuff and her creativity being recognized and her style. Cause she has this specific. She has, like. She got a lot of shit she put on, but she has, like, for me, like these three or four, like, distinctive styles. She has like the dressy, sexy, dressy, or like the Letterman, Timberland, New York, east coast type of, you know, whatever. You know, you said type of. So it's cool to see her be able to get, you know, I mean, all that. Everything that she dreamed about, everything she talked about, you know. Yeah, those. Those type of conversations we have as artists.

Kol Kushna

Her, or maybe you can.

Isaiah Rashad

But she's always. Artistically, she's always been this person.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

She's just gotten better at. She's gotten better at it. She has more access to producers. She's not hunting as much as being hunted. There's advantage to that. I'm not surprised by anything. After the day after she put out control, I'm not surprised by anything she's accomplished. Yeah, I think control was my last time being surprised by her.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. I always say she reminds me of a jazz horn player because the way her melodies. Her melodies are just some of the craziest shit you'll ever hear in terms of, like, even on this song, like, there's. So.

Isaiah Rashad

Wait, what's the. Cheer up.

Kol Kushna

What's that?

Isaiah Rashad

So. Okay, that's weird. Okay, I'll pause it too hard. Look, I think she's like a rapper because rappers to me are like jazz, like jazz players.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, rapping is like scatting and all that. Kind of shit.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So definitely.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

She has the technical form of a jazz player or rapper, however you want to put it.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I've read that she improvs a lot of her melodies.

Isaiah Rashad

Freestyle.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Hell yeah.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Yeah, that's. I mean, that's jazz and rap improv.

Isaiah Rashad

I feel like once you have a skill, that's when you learn to do stuff with it.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, a lot of people will be trying to play when they haven't mastered the skill. She can sing her ass off. So after that it's just figuring out how she wants to hear.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

So this. I think this is in the writing. Superb.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Lyrics are. I mean, everything.

Isaiah Rashad

The writings. Yeah, yeah.

Kol Kushna

So this song, I think, exemplifies a lot of the love centered songs on the record, which is like very pure. Every time you're speaking about love, it's like a contrast to everything, to the substances, to all the escapism stuff you have. It's almost like you're chasing the purity of love on this album. And all the. All the love centered songs feel very authentic.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Was that a deliberate. Like, there's no like misogynistic sex over the sexual stuff on the record? That.

Isaiah Rashad

See, that's the one part I could say was deliberate.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I didn't want to have a lot of B words. Now you want to say a lot. And 1. Cause of my kid, my daughter's getting older and just the way I. And I got so many women in my family, like me and my brothers are like the only men in our family. So after a while and with different events in my life made me kind of reflect on my own perspective and I'm like, okay, I can still be successful without like being a pig for the sake of. Especially when I'm not like in that place in my life where I'm just partying, doing like a bunch of, you know, just promiscuous. Sometimes it's easy though, to lean on that as a writer, especially as a dude, to be like a. Yeah. And that didn't make sense. It's like it made me feel weak after a while. Like even listening to that kind of. Yeah, it's like that's coming from a place of a lack of self love. Because how can you look at women like that, you know?

Kol Kushna

Yeah, that's very insightful.

Isaiah Rashad

Raised by women, got my style from women. Everything that I love about most things a woman taught me or showed me, well, that's.

Kol Kushna

I mean, that feels like genuine growth. And I think that my next kind of songs that I feel like are two sides of the same coin are Do I Look High? And Act Normal.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Where it's like, you. A lot of music is about describing the manifestations of trauma, and it's rare to address the events themselves underneath the manifestations. And I feel like both of these songs, particularly Act Normal. But even Do I Look High? Get to. Are trying to get to, like, what's underneath.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

And I think the connection I'm trying to make there with the growth of your respect for women, you know, and these two songs, you're talking about being exposed to pornography at a very early age and then trying to draw connections between those experiences and how you viewed sex later in your life, particularly when you found some success. Are songs like Dishonest, Harder to write or Easier to write.

Isaiah Rashad

It's sick because it's, like, easier.

Kol Kushna

That's what I figured.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Because it's like. It feels like it would be there waiting for you when you're ready to.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, when I heard those again, going back to, like, you know, the spiritual aspect and the connection of all that, when I heard the beats, it was like, well, I got this responsibility to get this off, especially Act Normal. Do I Look high? Was like, how can I make this look cool with what I have to say? And when I mean look cool, I just mean, like, how. How I'm gonna deliver it orally? How am I gonna deliver it?

Kol Kushna

Well, in the first verse, you, like, pitch up your voice and you're talking in third person, which feels like a character.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Love yourself. Love yourself, but don't do too much. You be fucking anybody when you own it. Powder make you feel. Feel invincible. It never made sense. Trying to live sensible since bars. Watching too much porn to even know Lovely. Like,

Kol Kushna

is that a correct reading of that, or.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, definitely.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

It's come. It allows me to distance myself from things and to. And to talk about myself. It's kind of hard for me to write a story about you. And that's the one thing that, like, on Kendrick and Nas or any of those kind of, like, of that level of storyteller, like, they are good at writing a story about first person, but from your first person. I'm not.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I'm not. I couldn't. Like, I don't have. I have a lot of, like, empathy for situations. I never act like I understand what it's like to be you, or I could imagine I don't have that. I don't think I have, like, that emotional depth for other people.

Kol Kushna

Okay. I get what you're saying.

Isaiah Rashad

So. But to talk about my. Sometimes easier. Like, I can talk to myself. Like, I can talk about myself.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, and. And in third person. And be able to get. And give you, or at least give myself, clarity on what I mean, you know, it's like talking in a mirror.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

But, like, the other reflection is just staring there, looking at you while you're. You know what I mean?

Kol Kushna

Well, there's some of that. I think it's in this music video, too. There's some of that reflection stuff. Or maybe it's in Same shit.

Isaiah Rashad

Same shit.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. But one cool scene from this music video is the right side of the screen where you see you from the child's point of view. Like, this child is, like, following you and watching you. Which in my mind connected to the line in the second verse where you say, I'm starting to be a better, pure example for my sons.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Was the idea of that, like, you have.

Isaiah Rashad

Definitely. Definitely. From a child's perspective.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

One of my favorite lines is, I miss my tender. Sorry. I miss my tender innocence. Writing poems for the girl in my chemistry class. It was simple then. And then there's another kind of similar moment in my mind in the second verse where you say, I'm a specialist. I made this especially for us to commemorate the Isle of Wild. Isle Wild. Today I had writer's block, which I love. For whatever reason. I really love that moment when you say, today I have writer's block. It doesn't rhyme with anything.

Isaiah Rashad

It's.

Kol Kushna

It's like it feels intentional.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, it's like I'm. I'm going to get this shit off regardless.

Kol Kushna

Like you're earning it or something.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Like, it's like I'm. Yeah. Like the line before, I'm a specialist. I made this especially for us to commemorate the idle. Wow. Today I had writer's block. It's like, it don't matter. That's the day I had writer's block. I had to get this off.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, and that was like. When I wrote that, it was like. That was kind of. Kind of cool on the nose because I was. That song is me having writer's block. Those two verses are from, like, four months apart.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

It was just a beat that I really loved, that I wanted to tackle, and I knew I had. That I had to. Had to be how it sounded in my head.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Starting to be a better, pure example for my sons. Finding a healthy way to express myself. Like testaments of Love, I'm a specialist. I made this a special lift for us to commemorate the idlewild today. I had writer's block. I hope somebody doing better than they was last time that I seen them. I hope you still dreaming.

Kol Kushna

I have one question about when you say since boys watching too much porn to even know what we like, plus the UFOs. What's the plus theory?

Isaiah Rashad

Oh, you know, like conspiracy theories.

Kol Kushna

Okay. Is there a connection?

Isaiah Rashad

The boys, you know, we get into stuff too early. Like we get like the. It connects to that. Getting into the. From porn to getting drugs, getting into just whatever distraction that we all. We've. We've all individually experienced. Those are mine. But like the UFOs thing is like, you know, to the misinformation.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

You know what I'm saying?

Kol Kushna

And being too young to really understand

Isaiah Rashad

to even know what's real from fake.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Plus the UFOs.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't believe UFOs are real. I don't believe that there is a advanced alien race that's taking this time out of its own life to come see what we talking about. I feel like that's from a place of. I don't know. Is sensorism a word?

Kol Kushna

Maybe.

Isaiah Rashad

Is that.

Kol Kushna

I know what you mean.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, but like when you. I don't know. I'm making up like when I think it's just human flaw to think that we're that important.

Kol Kushna

Right, right, right.

Isaiah Rashad

Aliens are coming.

Kol Kushna

Do you believe in that? There's other life aside from us though, somewhere. Yeah, but just not. They haven't been here like you know, the creator.

Isaiah Rashad

God have. My God, however, like huge galaxies, man. Yeah, I believe in science too. I'm like, there's nobody out there. Not close. And if they did, if they had the technology to come here. Why the fuck would they come here?

Kol Kushna

Yeah, maybe just curiosity.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't know if they have the technology. They ain't curious. They know what's going on here.

Kol Kushna

That's true.

Isaiah Rashad

If they flying through space and we're not flying through space, they have the technology, we don't.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Like what?

Kol Kushna

Okay, well, let's get into Act Normal rear transition. Because I mean this is like, you know, I think maybe among your most honest songs.

Isaiah Rashad

Boy or a girl? Ignore me.

Kol Kushna

I mean, I'm just curious about the title. The title comes from in comes in the hook where you say war is living yet at war with yourself. What is love When I don't trust a boy or a girl. Act normal. So I guess what does act normal in this context refer to

Isaiah Rashad

act, depending on act heterosexual. Okay, that's one. Or act sober. Act whatever your perceived normality is. You know, act like a dude.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, even back then it was like as a kid it was like, don't be a fucking nerd in front of people. At least from where I was coming up at.

Kol Kushna

Cause you like books and stuff like that.

Isaiah Rashad

Oh yeah. Don't be that. Cause we were all pretending to be like tough guys though.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know what I mean? Middle school, we're all emulating like the toughest dudes in our lives. So don't be, you know, smart.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, as a threat to our system. Right. Type of shit.

Kol Kushna

Okay. So porn comes up again here. Pretty, you know, clearly. But then you kind of link it to your dad at the time finding his stash. And then you kind of pretty much explicitly say, like my whole family are sex addicts.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. And not the entirety, but there are a handful that I can point out that are.

Kol Kushna

What?

Isaiah Rashad

That could point out.

Kol Kushna

Oh, point. Okay. I thought he said acting porn out.

Isaiah Rashad

Oh, acting.

Kol Kushna

Maybe that works too.

Isaiah Rashad

I think it works too.

Kol Kushna

Powerful line when you say don't view too much or your eyes get desensitized. Poor babies whose elders informed it was normal. You'll grow older, run trains and remain here. Maybe it was love, then sex, then sadism.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Who let the bugs and the wife. I remember now. Don't put too much to your eyes. Get these. For a baby who elders informed it was normal, he'll grow older, run trains and remain here. Maybe it was love and sexist sadism.

Kol Kushna

So what's the. What's that kind of progressive timeline of love, sex, sadism.

Isaiah Rashad

What is that for me personally?

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

College Sylvia, the house is burning.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. Those would be the three stages where that became that. Where is that?

Kol Kushna

Like the line blurring between love, sex and sadism and like. Or the. An evolution or a de. Evolution.

Isaiah Rashad

The line blurring of it from love, from it being love, an expression of love, to just being sex, to it being like, you know, a self inflicting wound of seek and destroy through other people. That sounds crazy.

Kol Kushna

No, it sounds honest.

Isaiah Rashad

I mean that sounds crazy. No, it does.

Kol Kushna

It really doesn't. Because I think you're speaking to. You're not alone in that experience.

Isaiah Rashad

No, I appreciate it.

Kol Kushna

And I think being so honest about trying to figure out did this come from my earlier exposure to pornography where this thing was kind of normalized from an age that was entirely too young to be seeing and consuming this.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

I Mean, I think we're maybe similar in age. And it was like, yeah, we were. We experienced the Internet. I mean, it's. Dude. I mean, you'd find just anything. And it was like, bear share.

Isaiah Rashad

She was crazy. Google just popped up.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Curious minds. Google anything.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Crazy.

Kol Kushna

And the parents didn't really understand.

Isaiah Rashad

They weren't supervising.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, it's kind of like what works either.

Isaiah Rashad

I feel like you either experiencing like this super helicopter parent or not at all.

Kol Kushna

Right, well, it's interesting then in verse two, you flash forward. I was 18 fucking for sport running from love so direct connection between all these things, you know? And then one of my favorite moments on the album is the second verse. I mean, the whole thing I have highlighted here. But. World tour, the rapper is a porn star Some girls come with a dick Some with the child support Souls collide and combine to dust It's a bomb when you line it up that whole thing is like, well, maybe unpack Souls collide and combine to dust I was

Isaiah Rashad

18 for sport running from love It's a bad vibe Breaking my heart by next time I had tried some things tried some more Cry baby world tour the rapper is a porn star Some girls come with a dick Some with the child support Souls colliding combined with us It's a bomb when you line it up oh, that was like a cocaine reference, though. Like, it was like a triple type.

Kol Kushna

Oh, when you line it up. When you line it up.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, it's a bond when you line it up. Lock jaw, minute lock jaw. It must be something in the water. It was like a molly. Okay, Molly, water, cocaine thing at the end of that.

Kol Kushna

What does souls collide, though?

Isaiah Rashad

Conflict. Conflict in relationships. Two people come together and either you have something really sweet, or you both absorb each other's terrible habits and have a terrible time together. And, you know, combining us and then lining it up.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. The way that your brain links these things is so fascinating to me. Just. Just like some poetic writing. Because to make that link is kind of like. I mean, it's really different. You know, the idea of souls colliding and then directly linking it to cocaine.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Which is like, unhappiness.

Isaiah Rashad

I always, always liked what I call hook rhymes. I practiced that. It kind of helped me write loose stories when I was younger. Like, that's how I got kind of into my ability to write stories. Because, like I said, I've always looked at, from people like Cole to Kendrick, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, even Jay Z. Like, very amazing storytellers. I do not feel Cool. Saying you, you, you. When I'm writing something or he or they, I don't like doing that.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, so it only makes sense if I can make it applicable seemingly from my perspective.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Because I feel like that's the character. Like, if you pick up my shit, you come in. Even if you take me as being a fictional person is, like, you escaping into this character. Like, you are me at that moment.

Kol Kushna

Right. Well, that whole. I mean, the whole song is really powerful. Was there any trepidation, like, releasing a song like that?

Isaiah Rashad

Nah. Yeah, I would not really. I. I was more so, like, I hope. I didn't expect to have this type of conversation, but I was like, you know, I hope somebody, like, with it and appreciates.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, like, the effort. It's not like I was like, you know, building a fucking house, but it's like, you know, I hope somebody appreciate the effort that I'm trying to get into. Like, hey, bro, I see you. Yeah, I hope you see me. I see you type of shit.

Kol Kushna

You know, I mean, even I just have to get it. The postmortem deep end dive that we enjoyed the fall so much. Unable to walk. So just call us on holograms faking appearance ain't as deep as it feel as we evading the fear in this coffin. Yeah, it's, like, just beautiful writing, man. Thanks. Like, really good.

Isaiah Rashad

Faking the field and holograms, that was like, the whole, you know, like, you're not really there. Right. You know, holograms faking the field.

Kol Kushna

Like, the two women in the holograms

Isaiah Rashad

faking appearances, I think is what I said. Oh, great. Okay. And then what anybody said.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So, like, you're not even really there

Kol Kushna

when you're trying to act normal.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah. You're not even really even. You know what I'm saying? Really present.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

You might as well be a hologram.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Okay, so I want to jump to superpowers, because I don't know if you're intentional with the track listing, but thematically, everything's intentional. Superpowers seems like the resolution to the album to me.

Isaiah Rashad

Definitely wanted it to be. I didn't want to do this whole thing and then end it with nothing. Like, w. Hit us back next time to find out if. If he's all right. Next episode on Dragon Balls. Yeah, yeah. No, I wanted to reiterate that I recognize who I am.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, yo, like, these are my troubles, and this is my reality.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Once you get the superpower ratio, this is my reality.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, this is. It feels like the chorus feels like a mantra, You know, you're kind of like repeating. I got real superpowers.

Isaiah Rashad

Definitely affirmations up here. Yeah, but that's again with other parts that you said of the album that you mentioned, like, definitely intentional affirmations because I got to listen to this shit. You got to perform, and I got to. Yeah, that was the main thing. I got to perform it. And I hate being up there after having so many songs where I've just been because people will say, like, this is the most vulnerable thing. And I'm like, well, no, I've been on stage hearing myself say some crazy shit. Like, whether it be some crazy explicit shit or just some crazy vulnerable shit where I was like, I don't like how I said that.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So this was kind of my way of doing every album was like adding 15 minutes to your set.

Kol Kushna

Right.

Isaiah Rashad

You know, maybe like adding a new 15 minutes of material. Taking. Or maybe 20 minutes of material.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And taking away. So I was looking for ways to make the entire set feel a little more positive.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Are you performing this live? You think this song that shit fun?

Isaiah Rashad

I've done it at some of the pop ups that we did.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. And then you. So actually, no, I gotta. Gotta call this out because I don't think I've ever heard anyone say terraformed in a song before.

Isaiah Rashad

And I'm still in the wild. I terraformed that again. I'm alive. I'm on the road with the kids on the dial. Slow down, baby, slow down.

Kol Kushna

Which is really sick. I had to look up the definition of that. But do you remember where you learned that word?

Isaiah Rashad

I think on some science shit.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Okay.

Kol Kushna

It's like making a uninhabitable planet, but I've never heard anyone say it in reference to themselves. Yeah, it's really cool. I terraform that again. I'm alive.

Isaiah Rashad

Like where I be going to desolate places and making it livable. At least, like experiences. Experiences I feel like I put myself in where, you know, you'll get to, you know, a dead place. And by the grace of God. By the grace of God and my abilities and the people around me, like, you know, we managed to take this arid fucking lifeless experience and turn it into something that you could grow from. Yeah, very literally.

Kol Kushna

Well, I was gonna ask you what the. The one thing, if someone finishes this. This album, what do you think? Or what you hope would stay with them? Is it something along those lines, man,

Isaiah Rashad

this boy can write good. That's All I'm like, if you don't get nothing else, man, I want you to be on your little Spotify and going on the lyrics, and I want you to be like, man, yeah, I didn't even hear that. Wait a minute. He said that? Yeah, that's type of.

Kol Kushna

There's a ton of those moments. I tried to highlight some here, but, I mean, is there anything, like, thematically that you would want them to think about?

Isaiah Rashad

As an artist, man, the last thing. I just don't want you to think it was whack. I think that was it. Like, I. I don't have like a. Once I've done it or once you put it, I don't think I have, like, a mission statement of what I would want you to take from me. Like, yeah, that's too preachy for me. Like, I'd hope that you feel seen if you experience anything and that that could carry you through your day. But as an artist, I hope you make. You want to make some music.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Like, if you're an artist, I hope it makes you want to make some music. But if you're just a fan and appreciator of Southern alternative blends of music, because I feel like that's. That's the, you know, the. The baton that I'm picking up. Right. Is the responsibility of amalgamizing. Is that another word? We need a word. Counter of words.

Kol Kushna

I think you just gotta be confident because you. Why not?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, I mean, but, you know. Yeah, I struggle, but, you know, it's an amalgam. Amalgamization.

Kol Kushna

We got it. It's fine. We got it.

Isaiah Rashad

That was a real one. But basically, yeah, like, I have this baton of blending music that I hold really dear to myself. And maybe that hasn't been physically passed down to me from, you know what I'm saying, the people who I looked up to. But I feel like in my generation, I have this baton and I may share it with other people. Blending the Southern with some of the west coast synths and blending it with some folk music, then blending it with a little bit of rock and then blending it with, you know, some fucking Juno emo shit, you know? Yeah. And then bringing it back to just trunk rattling shit. Like, it's like. But then making sure it all lives in one world. Yeah, I'm like, if. If I. If I could do anything if you walked away from the album, I hope you appreciate and want to go listen to other shit. I hope I'm a good part of your track listing for the day.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Well, and then I gotta ask you. So after 719 freestyle, we hear the album ends with a car door closing. Yeah, what's that about?

Isaiah Rashad

I make all the music in the car.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

Like I'm right majority. Unless I'm freestyling. Like freestyling or doing. Like if you was at the studio and they was like, yo, we got this producer to come in and he writes songs too. You wanna. You might wanna try to shoot some hooks off with them. We might do that. But usually if I write, man, I don't the performing aspect of being in a room with people. If I'm with you, I'm gonna write pretty quick. But if I'm by myself, I'm gonna sit in my car, smoke like two, three Ls, and I'm gonna write like four verses and I'm gonna record all of them and pick one, pick two. Yeah, yeah. Why don't I be around?

Kol Kushna

What about. What about in the car is like

Isaiah Rashad

comforting, I guess it remind me of being broke.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

And it also reminds. And it also is really good acoustics for like how I wanna a rap to sound, which remind me of, I mean, how I've always done it every album. I've always. I'm kind of always broken my head. There's always like, you know, this is my comfort, this is my alone space.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Especially with how I will write a rap. Like, I'm writing and I'm yelling and that should sound cool, but, you know, I still like my privacy in my lyrics when I come up with them.

Kol Kushna

Okay, so what's. What's next? Do you have anything like any music playing?

Isaiah Rashad

Back working.

Kol Kushna

What's that?

Isaiah Rashad

I'm back working. I was at the studio yesterday.

Kol Kushna

Oh, sick.

Isaiah Rashad

Working.

Kol Kushna

You feel like it's gonna be another five years before you get a full project, hopefully.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so.

Kol Kushna

You seem like in a great. Your energy is great. It seems like you're in a great space. I don't want to assume maybe you're acting normal.

Isaiah Rashad

No, I'm. It's pure, pure music right now.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So I'm just having fun and trying to impress myself more than anything. Like, kind of like do better in a technical aspect. Like there's certain kinds of songs that I want to write, like. And so I'm kind of on that, like challenges that I haven't been able to get off. Like, example, man, I have to play for you.

Kol Kushna

Okay. I mean, did you feel like. I feel like it was some artists, like, especially an album as maybe heavy as this one, was there a sense of, like, relief after you completed it and, like, maybe you feel like you can now do some other things musically, artistically?

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, I feel like it was, like, a responsibility I had artistically that I had to get off in order to do whatever else I'm supposed to do.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

And then I feel like my albums kind of do a light to heavy thing. I feel like Sylvia was pretty light. And though some people took things from it. And how. I mean, the second project since I really kind of delved into a lot of shit. And the house is burning. It's kind of light. And this was kind of.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

So who knows? The next one might be, like, a combo.

Kol Kushna

Okay.

Isaiah Rashad

I don't have, like, any, like, therapist work to work out on a record. Like, too heavy. Right. Or maybe I will, though.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Maybe something else will come to me and I need to regurgitate. Yeah. All right, well, expunge.

Kol Kushna

You're coming on. You're gonna. You're coming on. Going on tour soon.

Isaiah Rashad

August 13th.

Kol Kushna

Yeah.

Isaiah Rashad

Atlanta.

Kol Kushna

Alameda. Right.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah.

Kol Kushna

She's really good.

Isaiah Rashad

She's, like, great.

Kol Kushna

I feel like she's right. Like, stardom's here, and she's like, just something.

Isaiah Rashad

It's gonna, like, person like that. All it takes is one song.

Kol Kushna

Yeah, she's right, like, right there. I can feel it.

Isaiah Rashad

Yeah, she's great.

Kol Kushna

So cool. All right, man. Well, thanks for. For doing this. Appreciate it. Great album. Beautiful work. Thanks for making it for us.

Isaiah Rashad

Thank you. Thank you.

Kol Kushna

Yeah. Sam.