Reason is a 33 year old rapper from Carson, California who released a total of 4 mixtapes until signing to Top Dawg Entertainment in the middle of 2018 by reissuing the one that landed him the contract in the first place: There You Have It. However, his official full-length debut album New Beginnings received more mixed reception when it came out the fall where COVID had the whole world shut down. But considering a couple latest singles of his along with the fact that he called in some show on-air a few days ago to vent his frustrations over the ball being dropped promotion-wise & Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith’s son Moosa subsequently called in to get into a heated exchange of words with Reason saying former employee/pgLang co-founder Dave Free regrets even signing him in the first place, I went into the sophomore effort hoping I would like it more than the predecessor.
“Faded off Poor n Riches!” starts off the album with a drumless beat with the sound of a ticking clock talking about getting to share the Ws whereas “Caucasian Estates!” takes the morbid trap route thanks to Vinylz & Allen Ritter ensuring you to relax so he can push your shit to the max. The gospel influences throughout “At It Again” are pretty cool as he triumphantly focuses on winning once more that is until “A Broken Winter Break!” dives into soulful boom bap territory admitting he’s blurry of the 5th.
Moving on from there, “You Betta (Jesus Take the Wheel)” tells y’all to come & take the weight off him with a hazy trap beat just before “Send You 2 the Afterlife!” almost gives me a Memphis rap feel instrumentally with the title saying it all conceptually. “Call Me!“ gives off a more soothing vibe saying he’s way too stressed in here, but then the spacey boom bap-inflicted “Gang Shit!” calling out those who don’t like his image coming & you can hear the genuine frustration in his voice.
“F.T.N.! (Fuck These N***a!)” featuring Baby Tate has a more skeletal trap tone as they deliver a decent pop rap ballad together leading into the booming “Gina! (August Alsina)” dropping braggadocio. “Too Much! (Melly Mel)” follows this up with a bleak jazz rap ballad about overthinking while “Bussin! (WB Pt.2) featuring Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate Ray Vaughn who has yet to drop a full-length debut with the label probably because they’re shelving him too finds them over keys & hi-hats co-produced by Boi-1da talking about never being upset with how they living.
Meanwhile, “Rich Mirages!” hazily confesses having the optical illusion of being wealthy while “I Don’t Trust You!” featuring TDE’s latest signing as of me writing this review Doechii finds the pair making a better version of “F.T.N.! (Fuck These N***a!)” with all respect to Baby Tate except they’re tackling mistrust. The song “Family First!” featuring Kalan.FrFr, SiR & Zacari delivers a piano trap ballad dedicated to family while the penultimate track “Porch Steps!” featuring Dirty Dell nocturnally talks about never leaving the hood. “Poster Child!” however wraps everything up with 1 final boom bap cut hungrily declaring he got where he is today in the music industry because of a specific mindset.
A lot of people including myself generally think Reason is one of the more average artists on the TDE roster but after the whole situation with Moosa only a few days ago, it didn’t sit right with me at all as someone who watched the label in it’s prime in high school. That being said: the guy deserves better. He’s at different place emotionally, but the production’s just okay at best & the guests’ performances are hit or miss. As someone who watched the label in its prime back in high school, their downfall has unquestionably become one of the biggest tragedies in hip hop history.
Score: 3/5
@legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!
Legends Will Never Die 