10 New Artists You Need to Know: February 2014

Photo: Christopher Parsons

Isaiah Rashad

Sounds Like: A Tennessee MC in a laptop-generated floating world, segueing between ruddily sung harmonies and honest raps.

For Fans Of: Kendrick Lamar, Drake, ATLiens-era OutKast

Why You Should Pay Attention: Hip-hop’s gaze is currently trained upon Rashad, whose Cilvia Demo marks the first release from management powerhouse Top Dawg Entertainment since Kendrick Lamar’s instant-classic good kid, m.A.A.d city. Only two years ago, Rashad was working odd jobs while uploading tracks to his SoundCloud account, hoping to get a response. Apparently the tactic worked: TDE relocated the 22-year-old from a public housing complex in Chattanooga to a house in Carson, California where he developed songs with in-house producers like the Antydote. Well-received leaks like “Shot You Down” and “Ronnie Drake” piqued interest for Cilvia Demo, which was inspired by his rundown-yet-beloved 1995 Honda Civic. “I called it a demo because it’s the first collection of songs I ever put together,” he says. By January the free mixtape was upgraded to a retail release that debuted in the top 40. by MOSI REEVES

He Says: Rashad once considered naming his project Pieces of a Kid in homage to proto-rap pioneer Gil Scott-Heron’s 1972 classic Pieces of a Man. “I love Gil Scott-Heron. He has a song called ”˜Home is Where the Hatred Is, and the stuff he described in it I related to a lot, as far as being where I was from in Chattanooga, in the trap. He’s one of the first guys to do what guys are doing now, which is a rap/singing kind of thing. He did spoken-word poetry, but he always put some melody in it. He’s done more for me and for hip-hop than a lot of people know.”

Hear for Yourself: ”Ronnie Drake,” where Rashad stick-shifts from a “coke flow” braggadocio to meditating on how “We came a long way from a boat and an auction / Now we got names and a vote and a coffin / Ain’t shit changed but the coast we adopted.”