Isaiah Rashad moves like someone who knows exactly what he’s lived through, even if he’s still figuring out what it means. His latest visual for “Do I Look High” doesn’t try to clean that up. It leans into it.
Released this week, the Omar Jones-directed video plays out like a quiet confrontation. A younger version of Rashad shadows an older one, the two drifting through the same spaces but carrying very different weight. The split-screen framing does most of the talking. One side feels untouched, almost naive. The other looks worn down, moving with the kind of hesitation that only comes from experience. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t need to be.
The track itself, featuring Julian Sintonia, sits in that uneasy middle ground Rashad has built his career on. It’s reflective without being sentimental, heavy without collapsing in on itself. There’s a tension running through it, the kind that comes from asking a question you already know the answer to.
“Do I Look High” lands as part of Rashad’s new album It’s Been Awful, which dropped May 1 via Top Dawg Entertainment and Warner Records. The project immediately hit No. 1 on Apple Music’s Hip-Hop/Rap chart, a reminder that Rashad’s audience hasn’t gone anywhere. If anything, they’ve been waiting for this exact kind of return.
The album pulls in features from SZA and Dominic Fike, but it never feels crowded. Rashad keeps the focus tight, circling themes he’s never fully escaped: addiction, shame, intimacy, and the slow, uneven process of pulling yourself back together. Critics have pointed to the same thing across the board. The writing cuts deeper this time, but it also stretches further, taking risks that don’t always resolve cleanly.
That’s part of what makes it work.
Rashad isn’t offering closure here. It’s Been Awful lives in the mess, in the aftermath, in the spaces where clarity hasn’t quite arrived. The “Do I Look High” video just makes that visible, putting two versions of the same person side by side and refusing to tell you which one wins.
For Rashad, that’s the point.
Featured image credit: Isaiah Rashad Instagram
