Cilvia Demo

Composition

Ciliva Demo is a loose concept album that, according to Rashad, sums up his emotional struggle, from his teenage to adolescent years. The project is characterized by its personal themes, such as substance abuse, fatherhood, growing up, and police brutality. The EP's music incorporates stylistic and production elements of southern, experimental, and progressive hip hop. Its production features smooth, old school influenced, downbeat southern hip hop production, with elements of experimental soul and trip hop. The project features hazy and atmospheric soundscapes, low, mid, to high-tempo beats, and chopped and screwed background vocals, and abrasive main vocal set against smooth, slow burning southern-styled production.

Reception

Cilvia Demo was met with universal acclaim from music critics upon its release. Praise was directed at the album's lyrics, unconventional and experimental production, cohesiveness, and Rashad's unique style and thoughtful lyrics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 82, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 13 reviews. Rob Markman of MTV gave the project a positive review saying, "By the time the 14-track project winds down, Isaiah Rashad slowly doles out his own coming-of-age story using introspective raps, melodies and, at times, good old southern bounce." Marcus Dowling of HipHopDX said, "Every story and hook on Isaiah Rashad's Cilvia Demo connects on a human level. What it lacks in depth is covered by excellent production and raw talent." Michael Madden of Consequence of Sound gave the project a positive review saying, "At any rate, Rashad sounds like he belongs. He’s touched down on his own terms, and he’ll be sticking around for a while." Sheldon Pearce of XXL gave the project an overwhelmingly positive review, directing praise at the album's production, lyrical content, and replay value.

The EP debuted at number 40 on the US Billboard 200, selling 8,500 copies its first week. In its second week, the EP completely fell off the Billboard 200. As of May 2016, the EP sold around 28,000 copies domestically.

Accolades

Cilvia Demo appeared on multiple year end lists of the best hip-hop albums of that year. Rap Genius hailed it as the seventh best hip hop release that year, while Rolling Stone placed it at number twenty-one on it year-end hip hop albums list. SPIN included the album on its list of the 40 best hip hop releases of 2014. Based on the buzz generated by the EP, XXL revealed Rashad was included in their annual freshman class, alongside fellow up-and-comers Chance the Rapper, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Vic Mensa, August Alsina, Troy Ave, Kevin Gates, Lil Bibby, Jon Connor, Lil Durk and Jarren Benton. On June 29, 2016, Pitchfork Media published a list of "The 50 Best Rap Mixtapes of the Millennium". Cilvia Demo was included on the list, placed at the 35th position.