Isaiah Rashad Almost Got Dropped From TDE For Xanax & Alcohol Abuse
After Isaiah Rashad dropped his 2014 Cilvia Demo we all thought the then Top Dawg Entertainment newbie was going to release another project shortly after. But time went by and other members of TDE released their projects: Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly; Jay Rock's 90059; and Schoolboy Q's Blank Face LP.
Fast forward to now and Rashad has released multiple new songs to prep for a forthcoming release that's expected to drop on September 2. But in between that time Rashad wasn't only dealing with making new music, but overcoming substance abuse.
In a new interview with the Juan Epstein podcast, the Chattanooga rapper opens up about a severe Xanax and alcohol addiction he had to overcome. The problem began when Rashad was finishing up the Oxymoron tour with Q.
"I f**ked up pretty bad — I almost got dropped like three times," Rashad said. "I was too stressed out all the time and I kept popping pills, I kept f**king drinking...I would get up in the morning and go buy a pint." The substance abuse became so bad that it ended up damaging Rashad's stomach lining.
Ultimately, the "Smile" artist was put on punishment: the better he got the more music from his forthcoming project would get released.
"Top sent me away from the squad," Rashad said. "You ain't heard from me? You ain't heard me drop s**t until I got my s**t together. I got my s**t together a little bit, 'Nelly' came out. I got my s**t together a little bit, 'Smile' came out. Now I got my s**t together."
Fortunately, the rapper doesn't drink as often anymore and doesn't use Xanax at all. This is all good to hear considering that Rashad's new album will be coming out soon, and now has a title — The Sun's Tirade. The announcement came via TDE's SoundCloud earlier this week when they unveiled a new Rashad track titled "Park," that was accompanied by the album artwork and name.
