Isaiah Rashad returns with It’s Been Awful, a 16-track project that resists easy peaks in favor of cohesion, mood, and emotional continuity. Five years after The House Is Burning, the Top Dawg Entertainment mainstay delivers a body of work that feels less like a comeback statement and more like a lived-in reflection of survival, routine, and self-repair.
Released on May 1 via TDE/Warner Records, the album arrives following the lead single “SAME SH!T,” a track Rashad described as rooted in discipline and day-to-day persistence. That ethos runs through the full project, where the Tennessee rapper leans into subtle shifts rather than explosive moments, prioritizing atmosphere over immediate chart-grabbing highs. Collaborations with SZA, Dominic Fike, and Julia Sintonia are woven into the tracklist without disrupting its flow.
Songs unfold like fragments of a larger internal dialogue, touching on themes of mental health, family responsibility, and the tension between indulgence and control.
Scroll down for the full ranking of the album’s best songs.
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