One of the most exciting voices in UK R&B, Reuben Aziz has continued to impact the burgeoning scene since emerging in 2023. Growing his audience in UK and beyond, the Southampton-born, London-based musician is destined to further establish himself with his debut project that captures the past six or seven years of his life.

Listen to the new mixtape…

Read Reuben’s track-by-track rundown…

“elevate”
“elevate” is just about the hustle of moving away from home, dropping out of uni, and chasing my dreams of music. It’s me battling with loneliness, feeling like all I have is me and God in this chase to success. When you come from a city like Southampton, although I am blessed with the people around me, a lot of them don’t want to chase the same things I do. Man getting wrapped up in the wrong lifestyles, going down the wrong path. I found myself wrestling with the awkwardness of telling big dreams to small-minded people. Not a lot get it, and as a result, some people get left behind.

“day+night”
The concept of “day+night” is more of the relationship between hustling and love. I talk about love a lot in this tape, and it’s a duality I tried to express in this song. Getting the boy Joeyy [Wolfacejoeyy] on it just felt right for the track, and it’s always fun making music with bro. I think money and love can’t really go hand in hand a lot of the time, in the sense that having money, expensive clothes, and a nice car will definitely get your attention, but you won’t find real love. And on a separate note, I think that’s why I can outwork a lot of people. I’m not doing this music thing for attention, for women, for money, I genuinely love music so much i just want to make great art. It was like 2 am in dabeatfreakz studio when i made this beat and the hook. All i made was the hook at the time and I called my manager like “yo i got one”.

“IDOLS”
“IDOLS” is probably my favourite song on the album. This just tells the story of a 14-17 year-old Reuben making music in his room, trying to be like his idols but feeling very idle and alone in his dreams of making it. I started producing when I was 14 because I knew from a young age that like a Kanye, Pharrell, J Cole, Dave- i needed to have my own sound. So, during those years, I just spent hours and hours creating, making music, experimenting, and trying to figure out the formula. I still haven’t figured it out but I know I’m getting somewhere, thank God. But the reason why I love “IDOLS” so much is the outro. The way the Rhodes sit underneath the soundscape of atmospheric synths and leads just dancing everywhere, it’s some of my favourite production. Especially because I have 0 musical theory knowledge, I just remember playing around on the midi and finding these beautiful pockets and melodies.

“only one”
Like I said, P is one of my favourite artists and with all this sad music im making i wanted to make something more uplifting/ nostalgic to make people dance. i started with that guitar riff you hear at the beginning and just built around that. It took multiple versions of the drums to get the groove right, but I enjoy the process of just sampling different drums and seeing what works. Adding a ukulele for the outro, playing with the syncopation in the percussion, I even beatboxed to start the drums to give it that Michael Jackson/ JT kind of groove. Sequencing is important to me so I think this song takes you to a more happier, uplifting feeling after the depths of “IDOLS”.

“monster”
This song had around 5 versions. We had to switch it up as we couldn’t get stuff cleared, so I definitely took my time in getting this right. I wanted this song to be hella dramatic, haha – after a breakup, that frustration can just turn into cold-hearted anger. I’ve actually never had heartbreak, but I definitely know where to pull emotion from, and I tried to in this song. I feel like when u have difficulty in relationships, u can always go back to your people, as I talked about in the first verse, and I’m thankful that my bros and I got each other like that, lol. You’d be surprised how many of the mandem are lover boys. With the production, I took a lot of inspo from [The Weeknd’s] “Trilogy”, very Hip-Hop inspired in terms of the drums, and I wanted the song to build with the BV’s [backing vocals] in the chorus, almost as if I’m out of breath. Those BV’s are one of my favourite elements, they give the chorus such a pace it feels like im running away from everything.

“tomorrow”
I originally sampled some opera song for this but had to re-imagine the song sampling myself which I turned out to love even more. I started this song when I was like 17-18, and it battles with the idea of finding love and finding myself/ chasing my dreams, whatever that was at the time. Music is therapy for me, and it definitely was. At that time, I wasn’t really the social type going into sixth form, and I still’m not really. I don’t know, I think I was in a pretty dark place and I looked to God to take me out of that which is reflected through this song. I thought love could save me, it couldn’t, I even thought music could save me but now i realise it couldn’t. This song is just a battle of all these feelings and the difficulties of a college kid trying to work out life. I thank God I turned to music in these times because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make art like this. that outro production is one of my favourite parts, the silence and the breaths, that synth feels like heaven to me. The guitar u hear through out the beginning I didn’t even play for the track. I was sat with a girl and just found these chords, recorded them on my iPhone as “billie eilish ass chords” and then just imported them into my logic session a couple weeks later (something must’ve told me to) and it just worked.

“lie2me”
lie2me is the struggle to find love in a generation where people I feel don’t really care for it. My generation wants quick highs, short term intimacy, I wouldn’t even call it love. I feel like at the start of your journey, there are not many that ride for u, but as soon as u see a bit of success, people wanna be right with you. This just tells the story of a boy telling his other that with all the disappointment of love in this generation, he would rather be lied to at this point. There’s a lot of indie rock/alternative influence in this. Electric guitar in the pre-chorus, drums ran through tape, I wanted the beat to feel harsh, married with the outro which is a lot more smooth. The outro reflects what I hope we find in love in this generation. Someone who’s down to ride with you, makes you feel like it’s only you and you like it’s only them. I can’t lie, the outro is one of my favourite parts of the tape.

“MAGIC”
This is the only song on the tape not produced by me, but I had to put it on there. I want to thank GX the producer for coming into my space and creating this with me. As soon as bro pulled up the sample I knew what this song could be. I wanted it to just feel like that 2000s IN LUV R&B that high school love that you see in movies. This song is just about being so infatuated by someone that it doesn’t even feel real. The outro points to the reality of what love really is, reminiscent of lie2me, all of this chasing its long. But “MAGIC” is just love man, I love, love and I wanted to write about it in a poetic way, those first lines are some of my favourite lyrics i’ve written.

“Lost”
“Lost” kind of explains itself, it’s a story. I’ll let you listen and read it yourself, but i wanted to showcase my storytelling ability through Rap. I grew up on “Overly Dedicated” by Kendrick, “4 Your Eyez” by J Cole, and Dave’s “Sixth Paths”. This storytelling Rap is really important to me, and in terms of sequencing for me, it just pivots the album towards the darker ending of it. Like i said, i’ll let you hear the story but this is real life.

“before”
When your love runs so deep for someone you’ll step out the way for them in order for them – and you – to grow. You’ll leave them if it’s best for both of you, you’ll do the right thing when it feels wrong. That’s what this is about. When i wrote this, I wasn’t in that position with someone, but this is what I imagined real love to be and I think that’s why this song feels like a fantasy. In reality people aren’t that selfless with ones they love, because they want them so bad, but i wanted to write this from a perspective of pure love not jealous and overbearing love. Delusional of me, but real.

“i’ll be there”
I don’t even know what perspective this is from, if this is me writing to you or from God to me? I don’t know. This was the first song I wrote for the tape, years ago and I can’t even remember and didn’t even know it would end up here but im happy it did. It feels like the same perfect ending to anyone who made it this far through the tape, and anyone who made it this far in life. I want all my listeners to know i’ll be there for them as they are for me and i’m thankful for all of the love i’m nothing without them. The voice note at the end is my Grandpa, there’s no mad deep reasoning for putting him on i just thought he was spitting facts. It also just fit as my family, friends, all the mandem have influenced me making this music and im very thankful for everyone who ended up here with me.