Reason And TDE President Argue During Interview About Withheld Music

June 2024 · 3 minute read

REASON has been signed to Top Dawg Entertainment for five years and was initially touted as their next upcoming star. The Carson, Calif., rapper aired his frustrations with his label not moving quickly enough during a recent interview, and TDE co-president Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr. called in, which led to a tense argument.

The “Seasons” rapper appeared on BACKONFIGG on Monday (Aug. 7) to promote his upcoming album Porches, and he didn’t hold back on some of his issues leading into it. He revealed that he had the opportunity to get features from Latto and EST Gee, but TDE didn’t handle business on their end.

“We had certain features lined up that could’ve went through,” REASON said. “We had the budget, we had the features lined up, takes too long to get pushed through, feature price ended up going up or something goes away. Content ideas lined up, not executed. Rollout ideas lined up, not executed.” He was especially frustrated at the Gee guest appearance falling through, as the Kentucky rapper’s feature price went up by $25,000 after collaborating with Future.

Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr., the son of Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith,” called in to respond to REASON’s claims and took things in a personal direction. Moosa first asked TDE DJ MackWop, who was also present, and BACKONFIGG host T-Rell to name 10 Reason songs, which both were incapable of doing. Moosa then revealed that former TDE President Dave Free did not even want to sign the New Beginnings rapper.

“Aye, [Dave Free], [Kendrick Lamar], I love them ni**as. Dave never wanted us to sign REASON. He called him a substitute teacher. Dot only said REASON had talent, but it’s gon’ take more than just talent in this game right now and everybody know that.” He continued, questioning how much an EST Gee feature would help when REASON had already collaborated with some of their artists in-house.

“Even when I hear ni**as saying features and everything,” Moosa said. “Oh yeah, you could’ve got an EST Gee feature but what does that do for REASON? Like, what’s that gon’ do for REASON? Even when you say you can’t get in contact with SZA and all that. You done had features from everybody, including [ScHoolboy Q]. I’m just trying to understand it, man.”

Holy shit, Moosa from TDE had a heated exchange with Reason on BACKONFIGG ?‍??‍??‍??‍?

"Can you name 10 Reason songs"

"Dave Free said don't sign him, called you a substitute teacher"

"You sitting in a room with 2 men that don't know your music"

"You can't blame the label" pic.twitter.com/b9pdWVyiio

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod ?? (@big_business_) August 8, 2023

While Moosa’s comments toed the line between insults and humor, REASON was prepared to have a serious conversation. “You wanna have a conversation or you wanna go viral, which one you wanna do?” he asked. Tiffith Jr. also took issue with the “Show Stop” rapper claiming TDE was limiting his success and progression as an artist by not letting him drop music. REASON claimed he presented them with multiple EPs to lead into his forthcoming album, but things just did not happen.

REASON took to Twitter on Tuesday (Aug. 8) to address the situation. “I appreciate ppl that’s reached out to me,” he wrote. “Trust I’m as good as I can be. We’ll have a real convo at some point about what happened, just trust that wasn’t a ‘rollout move’ lol that actually happened! All positive energy as of now moving forward tho! Porches Friday! Love y’all!”

Porches will have features from Doechii, SiR, Zacari, Baby Tate, Ray Vaughn, and more. It will include REASON’s recent singles “At It Again” and “You Betta (Jesus Take The Wheel).” Check out the “At It Again” video below.

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