Isaiah Rashad brought Lil’ Sunny’s Awful Road Trip to YouTube Theater on Tuesday night for a special Los Angeles-area stop celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Sun’s Tirade.
After spending the summer traveling across North America in support of his latest album, It’s Been Awful, Rashad arrived at YouTube Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 29, for “The Anniversary Show,” a special night that also helped celebrate 10 years since the release of his acclaimed 2016 album, The Sun’s Tirade. The project remains an important part of Rashad’s catalog, and its anniversary is also being celebrated during the newly announced second leg of the tour. By the end of the night, the show had become more than an anniversary celebration. With several friends and TDE artists appearing throughout the evening, it felt like a full-fledged TDE family reunion.
Fellow TDE artist Alemeda started the night, continuing her run as the opening act throughout Lil’ Sunny’s Awful Road Trip. The Ethiopian-Sudanese singer has brought a completely different sound to the tour, mixing alternative rock, pop and R&B while showing the musical range of TDE’s newer generation. Songs such as “Gonna Bleach My Eyebrows,” “Don’t Call Me,” “Beat A B!tch Up” with Doechii and “I Hate Your Face” have helped introduce Alemeda to a growing audience, and her energetic set provided an early change of pace before the night shifted toward Rashad’s laid-back Southern hip-hop sound.
When Rashad finally took the stage, he began by introducing fans to the newest version of himself. The early portion of the show leaned into It’s Been Awful, his first studio album since 2021’s The House Is Burning. The tour’s setlists have opened with “THE NEW SUBLIME” before moving through newer records including “M.O.M.,” “SCARED 2 LOOK DOWN,” “BOY IN RED,” “SUPAFICIAL” and “HAPPY HOUR.”
The night still gave Rashad an opportunity to move through the different chapters of his career. That became especially important with The Sun’s Tirade reaching its 10-year anniversary. Released in 2016, the album helped further establish the Chattanooga, Tennessee, rapper following Cilvia Demo and gave fans records including “Park,” “Free Lunch,” “Wat’s Wrong” and “4r Da Squaw.” A decade later, those songs still received some of the strongest reactions of the night. The celebration was especially fitting after The Sun’s Tirade recently reached another milestone, earning gold certification.
As the show moved into its middle stretch, things started to feel much less like a traditional tour stop. The guests started coming. Ray Vaughn was among the first familiar faces to join Rashad, bringing another generation of TDE onto the stage. Longtime collaborator Hugh Augustine also appeared, giving fans a live connection back to The Sun’s Tirade era through their collaboration “Tity and Dolla,” which also features Jay Rock. Augustine’s history with Rashad stretches back to the period when the album was being created in Los Angeles. Yakiyn joined Rashad as well, continuing a relationship that has extended beyond the studio. Yakiyn previously toured alongside Rashad and Ray Vaughn during the Cilvia Demo 10th anniversary run, making his appearance another connection between Rashad’s past and present.
Isaiah Rashad & Hugh Augustine at YouTube Theater. Photo credit: Wes & Alex Photography
Nothing compared to what happened when two of TDE’s most recognizable veterans walked onto the stage. ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock joined Rashad for “Shot You Down.” The reaction was insane. YouTube Theater erupted as soon as the crowd realized who was coming out. What followed was easily one of the biggest moments of the night, with fans throughout the venue rapping the song word for word alongside Rashad, Q and Jay Rock. “Shot You Down” dates back to the earliest chapter of Rashad’s career with TDE, and seeing him perform it more than a decade later alongside ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock felt like watching a piece of the label’s history come full circle. Rashad was no longer the young Chattanooga rapper being introduced alongside an already established TDE roster. He was now standing in front of a packed YouTube Theater celebrating a decade-plus catalog of his own. As someone who still listens to this collaboration like it came out last week, that moment was very special to me.
The tour itself was built around It’s Been Awful, Rashad’s first album in five years, but this particular night was able to connect nearly every stage of his career. There was the newer generation of TDE represented by Alemeda and Ray Vaughn, longtime collaborators including Hugh Augustine and Yakiyn, and veterans ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock standing beside an artist they helped welcome into the family years ago.
Rashad still had plenty of his own catalog to get through, with songs from across Cilvia Demo, The Sun’s Tirade, The House Is Burning and It’s Been Awful carrying the show toward its conclusion. Tour staples have included “West Savannah,” “Heavenly Father,” “Lay Wit Ya,” “Headshots (4r Da Locals)” and “RIP Young,” among others.
The lasting image from Tuesday night was the sense of family that surrounded Rashad throughout the show. Ten years after The Sun’s Tirade helped establish him as one of TDE’s most distinct voices, the anniversary celebration brought together different eras of his career, from longtime collaborators to the label’s newer generation. More than a decade into his journey with TDE, Rashad’s Los Angeles stop served as both a celebration of how far he has come and a reminder of the relationships that have been part of that journey along the way.
