Reason Says He Praised Drake to Get Out of His TDE Deal: ‘It Worked’

We finally know what led to Reason and TDE going their separate ways.

While sitting down with Bootleg Kev, the Carson, California, rapper talked about the fan reaction to his unceremonious split from Top Dog Entertainment and explained the strategy he used to get out of his deal.

“Honestly, the fans have been consistent all the way throughout,” he began about the vitriol he was experiencing. “The fans that didn’t like me before are consistent and still don’t like me. Because when you sign with TDE, there’s gonna be TDE fans that don’t f— with you, it’s just how it works. The only fans I really lost were fans that I shot myself in the foot [with], but I had to do that to get out of the label deal.”

He added that Kendrick Lamar — the flagship artist signed to TDE from 2005 to 2022 — played a role in his exit strategy. “When the Dot [Lamar] and Drake beef started, I felt like Top and them were kinda dragging their feet a little bit,” he said of label co-founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. “I don’t think purposely, I think they just had a lot of sh– going on. And I knew that if I sparked a fire a little bit, that they’d be like, ‘We gotta separate from this.’ So I started tweeting sh– on the side of Drake purposely. … So there’s fans that hate me for that and rightfully so.”

The X post in question was a positive review of the first diss record Drake dropped as the battle was kicking off.

“It was right after ‘Push Ups‘ dropped,” he said. “And I tweeted: ‘Y’all hatin’, this beat switch up is fire’ and then I let it sit for 10 minutes and deleted it. It went crazy, and I still had the ‘Reason TDE’ [in my handle], so it looked insane.”

He then talked about how deciding to drop his On the Radar freestyle over Drake‘s “8am in Charlotte” beat added fuel to the fire.

“So [On the Radar] hit me, they were like, ‘Yo, we was about to drop it but we don’t wanna damage your situation. Should we hold it?’” he recalled. “‘Run it, run it, let’s do it.’ … I just knew it was sensitive times and I knew business-wise, it would make the most sense for them to separate from me at that point. That sh– worked. A month later, I was gone.”

Reason is gearing up to drop a new project in I Love You Again on Feb. 28.

You can watch the full conversation below.