The Isaiah Rashad It’S Been Awful (Indie) (Red Vinyl) vinyl is one of the more anticipated hip-hop releases in recent memory, arriving after five years of silence, speculation, and a fanbase that never stopped paying attention. Rashad has always operated on his own timeline, and this third studio album for Top Dawg Entertainment makes a compelling case that the wait was the point. This is not a record that rushes to prove anything. It earns its ground slowly, and it holds it.
About the Album
It’s Been Awful is the sound of an artist refusing the lane that was assigned to him. Rashad pulls from cosmic jazz, psychedelic guitar rock, and Soulquarian neo-soul with the same fluency he brings to hip-hop, and the result is a record that genuinely resists easy categorization. The features do serious work here: SZA, Dominic Fike, and Julian Sintonia each fit naturally into Rashad’s world rather than pulling attention away from it. Lyrically, the album is unfiltered, circling addiction, self-confrontation, growth, and redemption without packaging any of it neatly. Five years of lived experience is present in every track, and Rashad does not flinch from the harder parts of that story.
Why the Isaiah Rashad It’S Been Awful (Indie) (Red Vinyl) Vinyl Matters for Collectors
This is the indie exclusive pressing on red vinyl, released through Warner, and it is the version worth tracking down if you care about how a record looks and sounds on your shelf. Red vinyl on an album this texturally rich is a good pairing. Rashad’s production choices reward a proper listening setup, and the layered instrumentation across this LP translates well to the format. The indie exclusive designation means this pressing was not the standard wide-release version, making it the more collectible configuration for anyone building a serious hip-hop or contemporary soul section.
Isaiah Rashad in Context
Rashad came up through TDE at a moment when that label could do very little wrong, and his early work built a devoted following that appreciated his melodic, densely layered approach to rap. He has always sat slightly apart from his peers, more interested in texture and mood than in singles momentum. It’s Been Awful confirms that position and expands it. For collectors who followed his career through Cilvia Demo and The Sun’s Tirade, this third album represents a significant step, and having it on a limited color pressing is the right way to own it. This is the copy to get.
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