Rapper REASON parted ways with TDE in June 2024 after seven years. Announcing the split on Instagram, he expressed gratitude to label head Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, saying, “It comes with great appreciation and excitement that I want to announce my split with TDE… I want to give a huge thank you to Top himself, not only for giving me a chance to live out my dream but also for hearing me and understanding my decision to travel a different path.”
“There are truly no words for the amount of respect I have for you, and that’ll never change,” he added.
However, REASON was strategic about speeding up the split. In a recent interview with Bootleg Kev, he revealed how he used the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef to force TDE’s hand.
REASON’s comments about Drake now make sense
When the beef first started, REASON felt that Top and the overall TDE label were “dragging their feet a little bit.” However, he still believed that it wasn’t on purpose, “they just had a lot of shit going on. And I knew that if I sparked a fire a little bit, they’d be like, ‘We gotta separate from this,’” he said in the interview.
“So I started tweeting shit on the side of Drake purposely…there’s fans that hate me for that, and rightfully so.”
Right after Drake’s “Push Ups” diss dropped, REASON saw an opportunity. He posted, “Y’all hatin’ this beat switch up is fire,” before deleting it 10 minutes later. “It went crazy, and I still had the ‘Reason TDE’ [in my handle], so it looked insane,” he said, knowing he had achieved the intended effect.
He then doubled down, releasing a freestyle over Drake’s “8 AM in Charlotte” beat for On The Radar.
Even On The Radar hesitated before dropping it. “They hit me like, ‘Yo, we don’t wanna damage your situation. Should we hold it?’ I said, ‘Run it.’ I knew business-wise, it made the most sense for them to separate from me at that point. That shit worked—a month later, I was gone.”
Despite losing some fans for siding with TDE’s opp, REASON hasn’t slowed down. His new project, I Love You Again, drops on February 28, and he continues to speak candidly about his time at TDE. Time will tell if his next album helps mend any fractures in his reputation.
