‘With every Reason album, the idea is to continue the story from where we left off, wanting to understand myself better as a person,” says Sizwe Moeketsi, aka Reason, while talking about his new album, Love Girls.
The album, which is a narrative about his experiences with different women and his relationship with women in general, grew into something bigger for a documentary-touch on the dynamics of relationships.
“It then started touching on the more personal stuff where girls come out and speak for themselves, so it’ll speak about me in an abominable state, it’ll speak about me in an ignorant state, in a happy state, and it’ll speak about me in an angry state.
“It will speak about me on different levels and all these different moments are encapsulated in 14 songs,” he said.
Each song on the album represents a different type of girl and tells her story and perception of the relationship.
Reason. Picture: Instagram
From the Good, Happy & Perfect Girl to the Blessed, Angry & Bad Girl, Reason paints a vivid picture of each girl assisted by interludes from various women explaining their reasons for why they are that type of girl.
While the album shows him in various states, Reason admits that there is some level of vulnerability exposed through his work.
“This album makes me feel like I am vulnerable.
“There is no other way but to be vulnerable in your documentation of actual events in this world of hip hop.
“We need to decide what our truth is - it could be about the money, the success, the girls, the club, it could be about a whole lot of other things.
“That put me face to face with the beauty of working on an entire album,” he says.
Following the success of his recent single and video, Celebrity, the Katlehong rapper celebrated his 30th birthday in an extraordinary way.
He gave his fans an opportunity to watch him perform his new material and their favourite songs live at a special birthday concert last month.
According to the rapper, the album came at a time where #MenAreTrash began trending on social media.
“It was about telling your story through other people. It started off as just an excitement of working on an album outside of ourselves. It’s an album about girls.
“That’s cool - can we finish it off? Can we tighten it up? #MenAreTrash then came and we realised we’ve made an album that touches on one such man in this country.
“Let’s not pretend like it’s not happening. We then started getting people in and started getting girls to come in, to voice where they come from in terms of how they see themselves in relation to men, so it’s a project that we started off because of that incident and it just grew because of the excitement and creativity.”
When asked what his secret to longevity is in the hip-hop industry, he says being immersed in the culture and growing in it is important.
“The only thing you can ever get control over is the culture. I had a conversation with a friend of mine on how hip hop has changed from being underground hip hop to becoming commercial.
“You get a sense that you have to pick a side because you’re part of the culture, you’re part of hip hop. It feels right to grow with the genre as opposed to watching it change.
“For me, it’s about being part of the hip-hop culture.
“I listen to hip hop with my kids, I listen to hip hop with my dad. It’s so in me that I am a part of the culture.”
* Love Girls was launched at Taboo Night Club in Sandton and is available for purchase on all major digital platforms.