With all the talk in recent weeks surrounding the release of Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” and Kanye’s “Donda” albums, there has been an album that hasn’t gotten a whole lot of fanfare despite being much anticipated for years.
Isaiah Rashad’s “The House is Burning,” the much anticipated follow up to 2016’s critically acclaimed “The Sun’s Tirade,” has finally been released after, quite literally, years of delays, speculations and leaks regarding the album. It reached such levels that fans had speculated that the Tennessee native and TDE artist had just retired from the music industry entirely.
However, features on some of his labelmates’ albums such as SZA’s “Ctrl” and Reason’s “New Beginnings” as well as his 2020 single “Why Worry” led fans to once again hold out hope that the album would be released. These hopes were answered in May when Rashad had a feature on “The FADER” publication and released his first single for the album “Lay Wit Ya” feat. Duke Deuce.
Rashad’s music in TDE, although not as consistently released as some of his peers, is arguably the best on the label outside of Kendrick Lamar. “Civilia Demo” is arguably a classic mixtape and “The Sun’s Tirade” is not far behind it in terms of quality. Rashad’s combination of lo-fi beats and relatable metaphors and song topics have endeared him to so many fans and have created a space in hip-hop occupied by other artists such as Smino (a collaborator of Rashad on “The House is Burning”) and JID.
This trademark style of Rashad is only further expanded upon on his 2021 release. Although “The House is Burning” is not explicitly stated as a sequel to Rashad’s previous releases, it does feel like a spiritual successor. This may be intentional – or simply because Rashad is sticking to his lane.
This album does feature a couple more typical bangers than previous Rashad projects such as the aforementioned track “Lay Wit Ya” and the track “True Story” featuring artists Jay Worthy and TDE labelmate Jay Rock, however it never feels like Rashad is diverging from what he does well and what his style is. Both tracks still feature relatable metaphors and every single feature steps its game up on the tracks.
I think that highlights one of the best parts about Rashad’s music that is only further showcased on this album – he never sacrifices who he is as an artist and other artists, even if they might not of the same style as him, all tend to adapt to Rashad and what he wants to do with his music. Because of this, it sounds seamless every single time.
Another thing that makes this album special is how Rashad flexes his R&B chops on several tracks throughout the album.
Rashad has never shied away from crossing over into the R&B realm whether that be on his own work or as a feature. The track “Score” featuring R&B superstars SZA and 6lack proves Rashad has those R&B chops as a strength in his arsenal, with both featured artists bring their best on this project. It also continues the string of strong collaborations between Rashad and SZA started all the way back on SZA’s 2014 “Z” EP.
“The House is Burning” is an album that transitions seamlessly from track to track and ends in a beautiful way with the final track “HB2U.” There will be debate over how this album stacks up to Rashad’s previous releases, but in my opinion, this is Rashad’s magnum opus. It’s an album that paints a beautiful picture and brings out all the strengths in Rashad’s repertoire without any low points to speak of. Despite the album being a 48-minute runtime, it is so easy to be sucked into the album and for it to feel like it ends far too quickly.
Although it took us almost five years to get such an amazing and beautiful album from the Tennessee rapper, this is an album that was well worth the wait and adds another project to the already amazing discography of one of the most underappreciated rap artists of the last decade.
“The House is Burning” gets a 9.5/10
Teren Kowatsch can be reached at [email protected]