With a cinematic opener and closer, Isaiah Rashad presents The House is Burning (THIB) as a horror movie where a haunted house is burning and releasing all the ghosts and memories that have been trapped inside. I know you guys are thinking I’m crazy but hear me out.
Let’s start with the intro Darkseid. With what sounds like a drowned organ (and kind of like a slowed down version of the music from the Wii Network lobby) the instrumental creates a perfect waiting/anticipating atmosphere for a protagonist, Isaiah, (who I’m gonna be calling Zay through-out this essay, if you know you know) to fight and conquer the addictions and troubles he’s been publicly and privately facing in recent years with lines like, ‘Whatever was under the bunkbed, I ain’t scared, I’m ready.’ This led me to believe he was planning to address this all in the music in an overt and in your face way, but just as it feels like he’s about to pull the curtain back and begin to describe the beasts he battles, ’they shined his thangs and Cuban chain,’ he digresses and states ‘okay don’t get too heavy.’ I interpreted this as Zay being afraid of himself and giving us a glimpse of the villain (Darkseid) that ‘they’ (seemingly the industry or his enablers) have created. However this teasing of topics is pretty much the sentiment for the rest of the album: acknowledging problems and issues without clearly saying what they are and delving deeper into them, because what does it matter anyway? The House is Burning.
Isaiah dips and dives into his past troubles while keeping the songs and instrumentation as groovy and light-hearted as he can. He also adopts a lot more laid back flows and vocal inflections in this project and really allows his voice to sink into the instrumentation and atmosphere that the beats provide. It feels like they are in harmony; so much so that at times it even gets hard to hear what he is saying clearly and feels like he is mumbling words. I’m not sure if this was his intent, but it adds to the haunted aspect I mentioned at the beginning. If the beats are the foundations of the house, then Isaiah’s voice is the sound of a ghost’s moans and groans being released as it burns. This can be heard or realised in best fashion on songs like Claymore, Don’t Shoot, Score and All Herb.
Speaking of All Herb, I feel like this is one of the best balanced songs, as well as one the deepest cuts on the album, with Zay and Amindi acting as one voice for a large portion of the song and blending into the beat perfectly. Placed as track 7, which is about mid-way through the project, it has a few standout lines that seemingly touch on the discourse of the relationship between Zay and one of his child’s mothers with bars like ‘Who on the edge has the funds? It’s all over/ Starving a child is a cheque, it’s all urge/ We could’ve died throwing shots they don’t know it/ Sparin a child going wild.’ From this we can gather that at times he has felt like his child is being used as leverage to gain a financial come up from him by this particular woman, and although they seem to trade words and actions that are detrimental to them both, they ultimately decide to ‘spare’ their child from the consequences of them ‘going wild.’
The hook of the song is also mesmerising and hints at the duality of how he feels versus what is required of him. ’Screamin at home in our phones, we all hurtin/ Freakin ya soul with the pack, we all herb/ Pay me to feel with the funk, we all need ya/ Mixin the feel with the facts, we all hurt.’ Here he expresses how he is going through the same emotions as everyone else, this particular one, is ‘hurt’. However, he also understands that he is being paid to share his pain and relieve other of theirs by ‘mixin the feel with the funk’ (making music) because they ‘need’ him. Instead of making this seem like a cross he must bare alone, he acknowledges we are all used by somebody as a crutch to relieve their hurt, and likens this to us all being ‘herb’ (weed). People often smoke, or at least feel like they need to, to get away from what is going on in their day-to-day. This theme is referenced on the chorus of What’s Wrong from his previous album, which states ‘And I’m just holdin onto my breath/ I need smoke just to exhale.’ He seems to be saying we all act as this smoke/herb needed for someone to exhale. (Again, the burning theme continues.)
The album closer comes in the form of HB2U. Before I go into my thoughts on the song in totality, I just want to touch on the landscape the song creates. It feels like the grand escape at the end of an old 70’s/80’s movie, where the protagonist is packing his possessions into the trunk of his convertible and is about to go to a new town to start a new life, driving off into the sunset. The beat leans into this ideal with a Motown sounding sample and smooth saxophone which matches Zay’s lyrics of ‘Aye baby, I have no reason to stay baby/ My dreams too big for this city.’ He is venturing away from the haunted house and deciding to let it burn, whether literally or metaphorically, and setting his sights on greener pastures. This is supported by Zay sounding the clearest and most independent from the instrumentation than he has in comparison to the other emotionally dense songs on the album. Further helping symbolise he (his voice) isn’t a ghost clinging to the house (the life he’s built) anymore, but he is separate and alive. If this wasn’t clear enough, at about the 2.58 minute mark you can hear a car engine start and drive off into the distance before the second half of the song begins, which is Zay proclaiming over and over again that ‘you’ (which I believe is him referring to himself in this instance) are no longer a ghost, but instead ’You are now a human being.’ This part of the song also leans into the movie theme because it works perfectly as a ‘roll the credits’ score, confirming the end of the movie (album).
My critique of the project would be that it often feels unfocused, and drifts into things that seem too personal, in the sense that they are only known to Zay. So much so, that as a listener I have no idea what he’s talking about and can feel lost. I felt like this particularly with songs such as Claymore and Hey Mista, and portions of other songs where although they sound nice, the lyrics either don’t make sense to me or I have a clue about what he’s referring to. I think when this style of rap is in its sweet spot is when the beats are nostalgic and the lyrics are personal but clear. Because although what he is talking about may be personal or relevant to him, the feel of the song is familiar enough for you to be able to visualise the memory he is rapping about.
For example, in the UK we don’t celebrate thanksgiving and I have a clue who Tifa is, but the inclusion of what sounds like faint hits on a xylophone (which most people resonate with/ attach to being a child in a music lesson or playtime) in the instrumental of HB2U, really helps to take me back and visualise myself as a child at one of those large meals with extended family at a Christmas or Easter, whereby somebody who can’t cook (usually an auntie) has brought a container and you are dreading their meal. For him, it was Tifa and her mum who’ll ‘put sugar in they greens,’ for me it was an auntie putting peas in her jollof!
Overall, I really enjoyed this album but it does leave a lot to be desired. If he was able to pinpoint some of his emotions and provide clearer outlines of his stories, I feel like it would be a more complete body of work. However, I’m excited to see where Isaiah Rashad decides to go musically from here. I also hope he is in a much better mental space and is dealing with his addictions in a healthier way. My standout tracks in no particular order would be: Headshots, RIP Young, All Herb, Darkseid, Lay Wit Ya and Wat U Sed. Doechii and Amindi really made me fans of them individually with their contributions to this project too. Having lived with this project for 3 years, I’ve really gotten to vibe and grow with it a lot more, and it was great seeing some of them performed when he came to London for his tour last year.
QuoteKwame 