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Isaiah Rashad  

Hip Hop Recording Artist, Part of XXl's 2014 Freshmen Class

Isaiah Rashad McClain, better known as Isaiah Rashad, is an American hip hop recording artist from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Rashad began taking rapping seriously in tenth grade, where he and his friends would record on laptops. He spent the next few years recording at local recording studios. His first big break would be touring with rappers Juicy J, Joey Badass and Smoke DZA among others, on the 2012 Smoker's Club Tour.

Then in 2013, Top Dawg Entertainment made the signing official with Top Dawg announcing it over Twitter. Following the signing, Rashad moved to Los Angeles, California and began living and recording at the TDE Red Room Studio. To celebrate the signing announcement, a music video for a new song titled "Shot You Down" was released. It was his first new song released in over a year.

In 2013, Rashad made his national television debut when he participated in the TDE Cypher during the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards, alongside his label-mates Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock. XXL praised the verse as strong, even due to the high pressure Rashad had to impress the masses. Entertainment Weekly also praised his verse during the cypher. In the fall of 2013, the remix to "Shot You Down" featuring Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock was released via SoundCloud. In late 2013, Rashad told Revolt that he would be releasing his very first official project “Cilvia” within the next couple of months. Closing out 2013, HipHopDX named Rashad a runner-up for their award for "Rising Star of the Year". In early 2014, Complex named him one of the new rappers most likely to "blow up" during 2014.

As promised, “Cilvia” Demo was released in early 2014 via digital download retailers and was made available in CD format exclusively from Top Dawg Entertainment's website. Rob Markman of MTV gave the EP a positive review saying, "By the time the 14-track project winds down, Rashad slowly doles out his own coming-of-age story using introspective raps, melodies and, at times, good old southern bounce." The EP debuted at number 40 on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 8,500 copies in the United States, during its first week of release. For 3 months Rashad toured with Schoolboy Q for the entirety of his international tour supporting his third studio album Oxymoron. Later on that year, XXL revealed Rashad was included in their annual freshman class, alongside fellow up-and-comers Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Vic Mensa, August Alsina, Troy Ave, Kevin Gates, Lil Bibby, Jon Connor, Lil Durk and Jarren Benton.

He is currently working on the untitled follow-up to “Cilvia” Demo.

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