

From July 13 to August 23, 2012, Isaiah Rashad toured with Juicy J, Joey Badass and Smoke DZA among others, on the 2012 Smoker's Club Tour. From that his music begun getting passed around to various A&R's.

He began getting industry connects, forging relationships with DJ Z from and Jeff Weiss who writes for Rolling Stone. He stopped going to school and lived wherever he could record. Once his cousin moved on to a different job, Rashad bounced around a couple of local studios. As it turned out, the man happened to be his cousin and he let Rashad record there for free. Then his friend who went to school for music production introduced Rashad to a friend who had a recording studio.

After high school, he went to Middle Tennessee State University. Rashad first began rapping seriously in tenth grade, while he and his friends would record on laptops. Shortly after, Rashad started spending most of his time rapping. Rashad briefly had ambitions of becoming a preacher, until his stepbrother lent him a copy of OutKast's ATLiens in junior high, and his mindset shifted. Then one day when Rashad was three, his father left. When he was young, Rashad's father would let him stay up late while they listened to Too $hort and Scarface. He was raised primarily by his mother, who is a hairdresser. Isaiah Rashad McClain was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
