Top Dawg Entertainment’s Terrence “Punch” Henderson has given his perspective on the recent label issues that have surfaced with TDE artist Reason.
After Reason and TDE co-president Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr. went at it during an episode of BACKONFIGG on Monday (August 7), the longtime TDE boss decided to share his thoughts on Twitter regarding the rift.
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Punch started by saying: “That big bad mean ol label narrative is getting stale,” referencing the issues that have plagued the West Coast label over the years. He then followed up with a tweet that read: “You mean ol evil label. Lol.”
Punch later responded to a fan who urged him and the label to “let artist drop when they ready,” to which he wrote back: “Ultimately it’s the artist call, We’ll definitely go back and forth discussing matters. But if the artist feels strongly then we go with that.”
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After another follower asked him: “You cool with Moosa talking to one of your artists like that?” he replied: “I’m never cool with discussing things publicly that should be discussed in private. BUT if things are being brought to the public then everyone should get a chance to state their truth on a subject.”
Finally, the label executive ended by saying: “Hopefully a better understanding and construction comes from these tough conversations. For clarity I’m talking about what was said live.”
Check out his tweets below:
That big bad mean ol label narrative is getting stale.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) August 8, 2023
You mean ol evil label. Lol.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) August 8, 2023
Ultimately it’s the artist call. We’ll definitely go back and forth discussing matters. But if the artist feels strongly then we go with that.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) August 8, 2023
I’m never cool with discussing things publicly that should be discussed in private. BUT if things are being brought to the public then everyone should get a chance to state their truth on a subject.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) August 8, 2023
For clarity I’m talking about what was said live.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) August 9, 2023
Things came to a head between Reason and Moosa — the son of label founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith — after the rapper aired out his frustrations with the rollout for his upcoming album Porches on the aforementioned podcast.
With TDE DJ MackWop next to him, Reason accused the powerhouse West Coast label of failing to execute various plans that would drum up excitement for its release and fumbling big-name features from Latto and EST Gee.
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“We had certain features lined up that could’ve went through,” he vented. “We had the budget, we had the feature lined up, takes too long to get pushed through, feature price ended up going up or something goes away. Content ideas lined up, not executed. Rollout ideas lined up, not executed.”
“It was a few different things. I had Latto lined up for something, not executed. I had EST Gee lined up, not executed. Like, us not pushing through. Features lined up, we got a price set, video and verse for the love, takes too long.”
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He added: “I’ll speak on the EST Gee shit specifically — took too long to get through to EST Gee and his people and be like, ‘Yo, this is what we wanna do.’ By the time we ended up connecting with him and reaching out, he dropped a record with Future and the record went crazy. Now, the feature is $25,000 more than what it already was.”
Moosa later called into the stream to address Reason’s gripes directly. While the New Beginnings rapper sat next to them, the executive started off by asking host T-Rell and MackWop to name 10 of his songs, but they couldn’t answer.
Moosa then claimed TDE’s former co-president, Dave Free, didn’t even want to sign Reason in the first place and referred to him as a “substitute teacher.”
“Aye, Dave, Dot [Kendrick Lamar], I love them n-ggas. Dave never wanted us to sign Reason. He called him a substitute teacher. Dot only said Reason had talent, but it’s gon’ take more than just talent in this game right now and everybody know that.”
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Moosa also questioned how a collaboration with EST Gee would transform Reason’s fortunes, noting that he’s already worked with the likes of ScHoolboy Q in the past.
Reason refused to back down and replied: “You wanna have a conversation or you wanna go viral, which one you wanna do?”
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Moosa also took issue with Reason “blaming” TDE for his lack of success, to which the rapper countered by claiming the label hasn’t “allowed” him to drop music on a consistent enough basis, limiting his progression as an artist.
