Isaiah Rashad @ The Complex 09.23.2026

Concert

Like most fans of his, I think I was introduced to my first Isaiah Rashad song at the end of my ninth grade year in 2021. This song was “Lay Wit Ya (feat. Duke Deuce),” the lead single of his third project and second studio album, The House Is Burning (THIB). Over the coming months, I got familiar with some of his bigger songs off of his earlier projects, as he continued to build up to the release of THIB. I loved a lot of this album, for how out there it was compared to a lot of music coming out at the time, especially during the 2021 synth-rage wave.

Now, while I was paying attention to him, I wouldn’t say I deserved to be considered a fan until I went and saw the 10-Year Anniversary Tour of his debut project, Cilvia Demo, in 2024. Following that concert, I played that project to death the entire year and still have daily earworms from those songs and that phase of my life. It made me realize how much work Rashad actually puts into his music. I learned how poetic and devastatingly raw his lyrics can be at times. I mean, just go read the verses on “Heavenly Father” where he gets pretty real about ways he reacted to childhood trauma and how he links that to his troubles in the current day. Even the intro to that project, “Hereditary,” is very blatantly just an ode to his (at the time) alcohol habits and how he sees them passed down from his dad. This subject isn’t unique to him, but the way he tells the story, like opening with “I ain’t eatin’ in the morning, I been sippin’ on the Henny,” is what makes his songs stand out. The writing style and the murky production just fit so well together.

I can keep going on my favorite bits and pieces of his lines and writing, but it would take a lot of space to explain, as he loved to be a bit enigmatic. This was something that Kendrick Lamar actually told him he needed to tone down, telling Rashad that he was being too “puzzly.” Rashad said this bugged him at first, but then he ended up taking it into account when he wrote his latest album, IT’S BEEN AWFUL. This album reflects on the latest years of his life and career, his journey to sobriety and most importantly, the times and experiences that drove him to finding said sobriety. This album is the most real Rashad has gotten on any project yet and the most mature his writing has been. You have him asking for prayers on the opener “THE NEW SUBLIME,” describing how back and forth the journey to self betterment can be on “M.O.M” or even how much his struggles with pornography have affected him and how dangerous it is to generational growth on “ACT NORMAL.” My favorite piece of storytelling on this album is probably “DO I LOOK HIGH?” with Julian Sintonia, where he opens up about how he was lying the last time he told his fans that he was sober, and how hard it’s been to discover himself through all the hardship, ending the song by asking the listener up front, “Do I look high?”

The tour for this album, Lil Sunny’s Awful Road Trip, kicked off in August and rolled through Salt Lake City on Sept. 23, 2026. When singer Alemeda opened up the show, it set the tone for a night of live music with echoing vocals, a super talented backing band and cool stylized visuals. I didn’t know a ton about Alemeda before this show, but I would say if you’re into artists like SZA, Hemlocke Springs, Pink Pantheress or Doechii, you might like her music.

In between sets, the road trip feel was brought into focus with the back screen being designed like a billboard featuring ads of Rashad and friends and signage that you might see driving on a road trip and even a city sign for Chattanooga, TN, which happens to be Rashad’s hometown.

Not long after the opener, Rashad stumbles out onto the stage in character following the opening movie featuring him getting into a car accident. I can only assume this is symbolic for how he feels coming back into the spotlight after years spent in darkness. He played a good variety of new songs off the new album, as well as a few classics and a handful of deep cuts that any longtime fan would be super appreciative of. He ended some songs with acapella verses, and sometimes he even tossed in a beat from a classic 90s hip-hop track to replace his song’s production. This is something that I really wish more artists would do; being able to see a song live is one thing, but when the artist goes out of their way to shake things up for you and give you something that you can’t hear in the original track is always super cool to me.

It was good to see Rashad back out on stage again, and he is an artist I will always be super passionate about. Big shoutout to Top Dawg Entertainment for always having the best quality control, and I’m excited to see what’s next from Rashad and the team. –Travis Ockey

Photos by Travis Ockey: