Amapiano crossover artist, formerly known as Reason, sat down with his peer MrJazziQ for a candid chat about his transition to the buzzing genre, where he opened up about a number of things, from his first song as Sizwe Alakine to the way Hip-Hop fans have taken his career change.
Reason sits down for a candid chat on MrJazziQ new podcast
MrJazziQ launched his new podcast on Monday, and his first guest was Alakine, one of the few South African rappers to successfully crossover to Amapiano.
The 50-minute interview offered the Do It Like I can a platform to detail the journey he underwent in his transition from ‘Backpack’ Reason, one of the most prolific lyricists on the continent, to the dumbed-down Sizwe Alakine, which at first, was not received well by his core fans.
In fact, he admitted it himself. When asked about how the Hip-Hop community reacted to the genre hop, Alakine was careful not to reveal the reactions he may have received from his rap peers, but he did concede to getting a lot of criticism from his day-one supporters.
“The first reaction [from the audience] was, ‘you’re gonna turn your back on Hip-Hop like that?’, ‘how dare you, after everything that Hip-Hop has done for you?’,” he mocked.
This was fun 😂#JazziQandFriends pic.twitter.com/7hqvmUk6fn
— Sizwe Alakine iVampire (@ReasonHD) July 5, 2022
The transitioned rapper, who is still very much active in Hip-Hop, by the way, also credited DBN Gogo as the person who played a vital role in his transition to Amapiano.
“When I started making [Amapiano[, the first person I was sending the tracks to just get feedback was DBN Gogo. So, I used to work on a song and I’d send it to DBN Gogo, and then DBN Gogo would say, ‘Reason, who produced this?’. I’d say, ‘ah, it’s my boy JILLZ, you know? We in the studio, we working’, and she says, ‘yah I can tell JILLZ doesn’t make ‘Piano. So, I need to introduce you to some ‘Piano brus,” he revealed.
The constant feedback, Alakine explained, morphed into his first studio session with the likes of Musa Keys, Boohle, Lady Du, and the rest, we now know, is history.
Sizwe Alakine gets into his new career and much more in the interview, and you can watch it all right here: