Reuben Aziz on Longevity, Self Sufficiency in the Music Industry, and the Cross Between Rap and Gospel Music – An MM Exclusive

How did we end up here? is a question that we often ask ourselves on both ends of certain circumstances – whether an achievement or loss, development or decline, a romantic relationship or a spiritual one with God, Aziz encapsulates the confusion and growing pains that accompany adolescence. Fusing Rap, R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop, How did we end up here? is a mixtape that explores all the aspects of Aziz’ artistry.

Southampton-born and London-based, Reuben Aziz is an artist whose unique blend of genres strike emotional chords. Growing up with the influence of church and previously pursuing professional basketball, he values feeling and dedication equally. Beginning to write his own music at the age of ten and picking up guitar at eleven, lyrics followed soon after. By fourteen, Aziz was a self-taught vocalist, guitar player, and producer.  Ultimately led by his ear, he’s found the way to truly build his own sound, his eyes set beyond quick viral moments, knowing that short term highs don’t mean you’ll stick around. Wanting to take over the world is the goal – but for Aziz, doing it his way is even more important. 

With his artistic vision of ultimate completion in a body of work realised, Aziz offers four final installments through which he continues to embrace his vocal assets through soft vocals and hard- hitting penned verses, detailing the the ebbs and flows from the last seven years of his life. Tracks such as ‘Always come back’, ‘Part 2’, and ‘Elevate’, provide high energy moments and take their place as the main body on this mixtape, yet we’re taken to more soulful spaces – ‘Stick around’, the centre track of the mixtape, explores feelings of question against guitar riffs and a soulful hook. 

Aziz’ niche isn’t a tagline or common adlib. It’s the feeling that he wants people to associate with his music, and at the beginning of an exciting and promising run, it’s no doubt that Aziz’ journey will be one that will shake the boundaries of the music world, in the UK and beyond.

You’re an artist who has had such a natural growth and seems to appreciate being laidback.  In this industry, people aren’t always patient and most probably try to shift your career in ways you don’t want to go. What type of pressure does this bring?

With pressure, it’s not something that I let myself feel in a negative way or from the outside so to say. I feel more personal pressure than anything, because I am so specific and particular about how I want my art to come out, and how I want to make music. As an artist, putting pressure on yourself is much like a blessing and a curse, but it gets the job done, because that type of  pressure breeds results. 

A deluxe version of a project in my eyes is really the completion of a story. Did you always intend to extend the story of this project ?

I actually never used to love or understand deluxe projects. I didn’t initially intend to be an artist that makes deluxe projects either. Especially in rap, deluxe projects to me just didn’t make the most sense. I enjoy projects in their fullness, but In hindsight, I had to put that aside in order to be true to my music, and  be true to what felt the most natural, and what was the present reality at the time for me. We couldn’t put out ‘Stick Around’ because of clearance issues, so it ended up making more sense for it to be the centre single in the deluxe project. Having a body of work is so important to me as an artist because you are really able to tell a story through those groups of songs. For me, it’s where I see artists able to break through and stand out, because they’ve created two or three storylines that their listeners can latch onto, and a narrative that guides them through that. So, the process of not being able to put out a piece of the story taught me about doing what is best for the art, even if it means doing something that you haven’t as an artist before, and for me, that was putting out this deluxe.  

You narrowed down a lot of songs to pick the four that have gone on the deluxe. We have ‘Always Come Back’, ‘Stick around’, ‘Part 2’ and ‘more’ –  I wonder if you could narrow it down a little more and tell me What’s one lyric out of those four that describes where you are in your artistry right now?

‘Stick Around’  has been so central to this body of work so I’d choose that as a song. As a lyric, it’d be when I said, ‘I bumped TFL too many times for the underground to accept me,’ on ‘Stick Around’. I’m not an underground artist, but I also wouldn’t say that I am in the same place as the more front-running artists in the UK at the moment. It’s a place where I’m not navigating the underground scene but I’m also not in a place where those bigger UK artists can appreciate me quite yet either. Because I don’t belong to either of those categories, I feel like I’ve forged my own unique lane and been able to come into my own as an artist, and become comfortable with this phase of the journey, and so that specific lyric really encapsulates that.  

This project encapsulates the past few formative years of your life. Is How did we end up here ? question you’ve asked yourself in disbelief or in awe of how far you’ve come? 

It’s exactly that. Both moments and both feelings. Being a teen, growing into the adolescence phase and experiencing moments at both ends of the scale where you end up asking yourself that question, how have I ended up here? In good times, an achievement makes you proud, and then obviously experiences take place that can be placed on the other end of the scale, with less positive experiences in life. I think as a young person you’re going to have to work through both of those moments where you  wonder how you ended up somewhere –  In trying to navigate your journey, both are necessary for growth, so that is what  the title really sums up, especially because of the fact that those songs are really from personal experiences of mine from the last few years. 

You left the pursuit of becoming a professional basketball player to pursue music. Talk to me about the similarities between the discipline with pursuing both of these things – Did the work ethic you picked up from basketball stay with you as you made the pivot to music ?  

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a pivot because I’ve been doing music since I was quite young. The influence of music has always been integral in my life, and pursuing it completely and wholly  was more of a decision that I made when deciding what life choices to make, and specifically which direction I should go in.  As a young person, you get to the point where you need to make decisions about what you’re going to pursue and spend your time building on. I never really chose one over the other, for me it was a prayer point where I was asking the Lord what it was that I was meant to do with my life. It just so happened that around the time I was asking God these questions, I left college and met my manager. Though it wasn’t on purpose, I also started to perform a bit worse in basketball than I had before, and doors in music just continued to open.

The discipline I learnt from playing basketball at that level has definitely stayed with me and has flowed into other areas of my life. Training at 7am repeatedly, and adopting the mentality you need to excel in  a sport like this where you have to keep going allows you to just keep working on getting better at doing something – and the more you do it, the better you naturally become. That discipline has definitely stayed with me and with music, it’s the same discipline you need , the determination to just simply keep going. 

I think through it all, I just prayed that the Lord would show me His will for my life, and music was what naturally took over, so I decided to fully head that way, and the doors in that world have continued to open. 

You started to listen to music in church – So many great musicians came from the church, and once that influence is there, it stays. How has it stayed with you? 

I think that the main thing from growing up in the church that has stayed with me is the concept of  feeling.  My relationship with God is an important part of my life, and I believe I’m making art in the way God has called me to, by making others feel in my own music

It’s true, there is so much musical influence that you can take from church, from the melodies themselves, to the way that musicians are able to play through interpretation and improvisation. In all of that, it’s the ability to feel that has really stuck with me, and you see it with musicians who grow up in the church. Most of the time when you see musicians in church, they’re never reading sheet music or performing in a way that’s overly planned  – sometimes they aren’t even musically trained, but they have this natural gift of the ear given by God. And those musicians are the ones who can really make you feel something so special. 

It all goes back to feeling really, and the ability that the church has to enable someone to be able to do that has definitely come into my music.  

You sampled opera for ‘Tomorrow’. We also hear some strings on the song ‘Before’. Tapping into that church background, will we ever see you expand to include more orchestral sounds or choir backgrounds? 

Definitely.  Those kinds of scores and sounds are so interesting to explore, include in the music and sonically play around with. There’s an undeniable cross between those two sounds that we hear in gospel and the sounds that we hear in rap music. Even with choirs, and that gospel sound, I love how versatile musical blends can be, and that kind of juxtaposition is something I love seeing, for example, I love it when rappers sing.

Jay-Z isn’t necessarily known as a singer, but he’s sang on a few of his albums like The Blueprint, and it was beautiful. 

When I think about merging those two sides of musicality I also think about albums like Freudian (Daniel Caesar), where there are stripped back instrumentals that really are the frame of the project, and how a full range of vocals are built upon such a simple instrumentation. Some sounds like the ones on that album are so simple, yet they make for such a complex album breakdown. So, that’s definitely something I’d love to discover and play around with and implement in my music. I love the nuances and deep cuts that are like that on albums, and I definitely embrace that stripped back and gospel inspired sound, and want it to continue to take its own place in my music. 

We also have a switch in production at the end of this track – was that intentional or are  production switches like that you just exploring your sonical territory in the studio ? 

It’s both. ‘Part 2’ for example, got its name from me going off the hook, and while listening to the track afterwards, I realised  that it needed to be its own complete separate song, which is how it got the name Part 2. Realising that something is meant to exist on its own as its own story  when you originally intended it to be an extension of something else definitely comes naturally, like the whole deluxe of this project. Since it came after the main track, that also added into how it became its own, and it’s the same for other times where I’m exploring and things come about to be by themselves through that.

Because you’re a self taught songwriter, singer and producer, are you ever overwhelmed in balancing all these roles? Where does the line between collaboration and intrusion lie when it comes to your craft? 

I can be quite stubborn when it comes to my art, but I think that a lot of good has come out of me being relentless about what I want, and it’s served my music in the end, so stubborn for my own good, I’d say.

Unless it’s Pharrell suggesting I do something different, I will always be very specific with what it is I want a track to sound like. (laughs). 

And it goes both ways – I always respect others’ boundaries with their art when I am asked to contribute to other’s music. I was recently featured on another rapper’s track, and the producer told me he wanted something specific, and I can respect that, and deliver my part of the song the way that it was desired and meant to be part of the other person’s work. 

I will always acknowledge and appreciate working with a producer, butI’m also aware that this is also my song. There was a time that I requested for a specific feature part I received for a track to be sent over again because the original wasn’t exactly in line with what I had in mind for the track, and everyone who heard both said that the second one that was sent was so much better. It’s not about being disrespectful, I think it’s really the opposite, as I value my own art and others art so much that I always want to get it right and respect those type of boundaries – so that stubbornness has definitely helped at times, because it’s been needed for me t revolve the best results musically. 

In terms of having my hands on my work, there was one song on the project that I didn’t produce. Producer GX made the beat to this one song which was the only one I didn’t produce. I can definitely step back and appreciate the song that he produced but I do appreciate collaboration – there is just something about the process of having my hands all over my own work that I really value.  

Your ‘On The Radar’ freestyle created quite some buzz. As an artist who cares about longevity, in moments where you get buzz, do you find yourself conflicted?

It is hard. You chase those moments because you want to sell, and every artist wants their work to blow up. You work hard at your craft and there’s nothing wrong with wanting the world to hear your art. But you need to remember that keeping to your craft overtime is when listeners can really latch onto you as an artist. I won’t lie, every artist wants their song to blow up and so when things like that happen, it’s nice when you get more views and traction. But I don’t do this for views or statistics, I make music because I love it, and at the end of the day that always comes through as my reason why, despite the short term highs. 

You sing and rap. Not many artists do that, they usually choose one. I’m interested to know the musical influences that lent themselves to this eclectic sound… 

Growing up, I remember listening to a lot of DMX, Aaliyah, and Boyz II Men, all from the influence from my Dad who I remember  used to play a lot of that music in the car. As I grew up and went to college, there was more Afrobeats, Rap and Hip-Hop involved in my rotation.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of SZA, a lot of Drake, and a lot of Kanye and Pharrell, of course. 

Influences are very important, but I also am aware that I’m my own artist. As much as I love and respect these artists, I’m not sitting down to make a Jay-Z song or a Kanye song, and keeping that as an incentive helps with keeping your individuality as an artist. It helps you not play too much off of influence, even though it’s important to stay inspired and always be a student of the ones who came before you, and listening to music helps you learn about how things can be done differently when you put your own take on things – It’s all a balance. 

Being both Bahraini and British – what about your culture comes into your creative process? 

When I think about culture and its influence in my life and in my music, it’s not just myself who comes to mind. I think mostly about my friends who I met in college and who exposed me to so much music that, if it weren’t for them, I just wouldn’t have come across. 

And it’s not just music. If I hadn’t met them, I think there is so much art I would have missed out on appreciating and being able to love. Thanks to them, there was so much music, so many movies, and just a lot of art in general that I could appreciate simply because I was around them, and intaking what they had been influenced by in their own upbringings.  Those friends and people also encouraged me to freestyle a lot during that time, and having people around you who support your passion is integral to confidence as an artist.

I went from a majority white Secondary School to a college where there were more ethnic backgrounds and more mixed people, which is an experience for anyone.  I feel like that’s where I made my first real friends, and was influenced by the cultures of those friends within that kind of diverse community.     

Because my friends are all from so many countries, it made for a rich amount of influence that surrounded me, and so culture definitely turned into something that was made up by a lot of my surroundings, because it bled so heavily into what I began to consume art wise. 

In terms of my own life, culture still played its part. Having an Arab father and a White mother has influenced me – my father was raised Muslim, and a part of that shaped the way I learnt about discipline in my own life.

So, I’d say culture for me is about what surrounds me, because the influence of all those people affected me so much and really plays into who I am today, as an artist and a person.

Some artists are known for adlibs, others for outros or sonical  production. How would you describe how someone would know instantly that its a Reuben Aziz track? 

I’d say that It’s not about me, it’s about the music, and what it means to the person listening. I’d say that you’d know it’s me if the music makes you feel. Especially if it makes you feel happy. The impact of my music is so much bigger than just me as a person, and that’s what I want people to associate with me as an artist. 

What’s the mission and future for you as an artist? If you had to make a ‘how did we end up here’ Part 2, where are you as an artist while making that?

It looks like longevity, but it also looks like me getting my mother a nice house, being in a place where I can provide jobs to my friends, and making sure my family is provided for. 

At the same time the goal is bigger than me, and not just materialistic, but as much as I want those things to happen, I still want to put out successful albums, and win multiple Grammy’s. 

I want to be able to look back, five or six albums deep in the game, having worked with some of the artists I look up to, and still maintain the same passion and most importantly, the same reason for doing what I do today. That’s where I want to end up█

how did we end up here? is out now across all platforms: