Seeking Intention: Reuben Aziz Interviewed
Crafting a fine blend that weaves elements of UK rap, hip-hop, and R&B into one seamless sound, 21-year-old Reuben Aziz is the UK’s latest promising artist. Taking to the internet and dubbing him as “the UK’s Brent Faiyaz” supporters have been praising his unrivalled creations. Already housing co-signs from Clint419 [founder of streetwear brand Corteiz], Stormzy, SuperDuperKyle, Wolfacejoeyy, Songer, and Jim Legxacy in 12 months of his debut release, the Southampton-born luminary found virality with his breakthrough single ‘find u’ courtesy of the TikTok algorithm. Accumulating over 4.3 million streams, the 6’2 point guard swapped the basketball court for the booth and recently shared his debut mixtape ‘how did we end up here?’, an ode to his love for the 2000s mixtape era.
Produced entirely by Reuben, ‘how did we end up here?’ marks a pivotal point in his career so far. Boasting his studious tendencies, this mixtape is a product of growth. Teaching himself how to produce from as young as 14, his infatuation with music started at just 10-years-old when he began putting pen to paper. Like many artists around the world, Aziz took lockdown as an opportunity to home in on his skills. Sitting on a catalogue over 60 songs deep, ‘how did we end up here?’ is the perfect introductory point to an artist who’s only just getting started. Expressing his versatility and skill over 11 tracks with a feature from Sexy Drill pioneer Wolfacejoeyy, Reuben’s attention to detail speaks for itself. Pushing the likely route of YouTube beats aside, Aziz started from scratch spending hours curating each track – a testament to his determination and trailblazer approach.
Following the release of the project CLASH caught up with Reuben Aziz as he headed to the airport before catching his flight to New York City. Speaking all things music and his journey so far, tap in below to see what he had to say…
—
—
Talk me through your earlier years and how you were introduced to music?
It came from attending church and my dad was a big hip-hop head. He’s an 80s, 90s baby and he put me onto a lot of great music from Aaliyah, Boyz II Men, DMX and Tupac – that whole era. So, a lot of it goes to him!
I’m keen to know a bit more about your exploration into production when you were 14 – were there certain producers you looked up to? Maybe a certain sound that you were determined to emulate?
I wouldn’t say there was any specific producers, it was more producer-artists so people like Michael Jackson, Pharrell, Frank Ocean, and Kanye West. Half the reason why these artists are so great is because they’re invested into every detail and crevasse of their music from the writing all the way to the drums, instrumentals and everything that surrounds it. I guess I was at a young age when I realised that, but I wanted to make something unique and would stand the test of time. Therefore, I had to be invested in all the moving parts and not just write over a YouTube beat. It was the best way for me to create!
—
—
Your friends have been a driving force in terms of encouragement from your earlier years. You started out doing rap battles at school. Did this help sharpen your pen game? I’m assuming you would’ve been studious at this point, maybe going home and studying certain artists or excelling in English class?
Do you know what, I wasn’t that great at English! [laughs] I enjoyed the poetry part, but my friends were the driving force. I was a shy kid, and I still am to an extent. In college, the guys would always be freestyling in the canteen at lunch time. It made me want to be better and show off! [laughs] I’m a very competitive guy, I always wanted to win!
You originally started out with a career in basketball before switching to music. Talk to me about this transition and what sparked your focus onto music?
I started playing basketball from around nine years old, I started to love music from that age as well. They’ve always gone hand-in-hand, there is a cool relationship between basketball and hip-hop. It felt very natural! There are a lot of rappers that want to be NBA players and vice versa. It was the year of lockdown; my basketball academy told us to train at home but because we were all at home, I was making a lot of music that year. I can’t pin what made me switch but I put it down to God. It was a lot of prayer, focusing on myself and naturally doors began to open into music with TikTok and management.
Let’s talk about your debut mixtape ‘how did we end up here?’, explain to me the meaning behind the title and your intentions with this body of work.
The title almost illudes to there being no intention but we somehow made it here with this project. I went into it with around 60 songs, and I wanted to fine tune it down to 11 tracks. It’s a question that I think we all ask ourselves in general life whether its relationships, friendships, or our career path. A lot of people can relate to it and interpret it to how they feel.
How were you able to whittle all those songs down?
Good question! ‘I’ll be there’ I made when I was 17 and I knew from the jump that it would be the outro to a mixtape, ‘tomorrow’ would be the half-way point because of how the beat switches halfway through – I had a place for everything. ‘Elevate’ felt like an introduction, I wanted a deep cut of me rapping so ‘lost’ automatically had a spot, and I needed to switch up the tempo and create singles so ‘day+night’ and ‘only one’ landed on there. I wanted to create a balance of music that not only represents the past six years but also for the listeners, they can hopefully take something away from it that they like.
You produced it all, sonically how did you want to approach this mixtape? You’ve previously referenced that it’s an ode to your love for the 2000’s mixtape era…
Yeah! In that era of mixtapes there was never an approach sonically and that’s why I like it so much, it felt appropriate. It was more about collating your best songs there wasn’t necessarily a storyline and I wanted to emulate that. When you’re creating music from 15 years old you don’t go into it making an album, you make what you think sounds good!
—
—
Did you face any challenges during the curation of it?
The biggest challenge was samples. I love using samples in music but getting them cleared is such a difficult thing nowadays! For ‘tomorrow’ I chopped up an opera symphony and I had to re-create it using my vocals by pitching it up etc, some of the songs had a lot of versions, it was frustrating at times, but I got there in the end!
What keeps your grounded amidst the chaos?
God keeps me grounded, he’s the most important thing to me. I stay locked in and prayed up! In my free time, I’m a homebody I can’t lie. I see my friends and play my Nintendo – I’m a simple guy! [laughs]
What more can we expect from you this year?
More music and visuals – I’m not planning on stopping just because the tape is out!
—
—
‘how did we end up here?’ is out now.
Words: Elle Evans // @elleevans98
—
