Isaiah Rashad hasn’t had much to say about the sex tapes that leaked earlier this year, allegedly outing him as being sexually active with men, but the rapper finally addressed the situation during his Coachella set this weekend.
His set opened with a montage of the news and internet coverage that followed the leak, intermingled with videos of Rashad himself.
“The purpose of doing that was to try to embarrass him,” one voice says. “But, however, it backfired.”
“When his video leaked, his streams and whatever went up. He’s up on the charts now,” another agreed.
Other snippets of conversation mention how “going another way” besides straight isn’t a big deal, and someone saying, “I’m glad that he can finally be himself.”
\u201cisaiah rashad back!\n\nreally happy to see my guy out at coachella\u201d— kris hooks (@kris hooks) 1650176935
From there, the set transitions into Rashad’s music, without him directly addressing February’s leaked videos, which allegedly showed him giving and receiving oral sex from men.
But many took the opening montage and the positive affirmations within it as confirmation from Rashad that he does identify as LGBTQ; others suggested letting Rashad publicly address all of this to the extent he feels comfortable doing so in his own time.
\u201cThe first time Isaiah Rashad spoke on the controversy surrounding his sexuality is on one of the biggest platforms in the world. He gave a montage of all the blogs that reported on it. That\u2019s a whole power move \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe.\u201d— Dedee \ud83e\udd40 (@Dedee \ud83e\udd40) 1650182181
\u201cI'm happy Isaiah Rashad is okay. See how the internet, especially men reacted to that leaked video? We need that same energy for everyone and everything. Receive it positively, accepted and support the individual.\u201d— old soul (@old soul) 1650181702
\u201cThey buried Isaiah Rashad not knowing he's a seed. Kudos to him & to every LGBTQIA+ person in historically queerphobic spaces for claiming their space. Hopefully we can get more musicians like Saucy Santana embraced by the mainstream. If not we'll always support them nonetheless.\u201d— Sthembiso (@Sthembiso) 1650203414
Rashad also took a moment to thank fans for all the messages of support they’ve sent him this year, noting that it’s what “kept me alive these last couple months.”
