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Lehlogonolo Ronald Mataboge (born 20 March 1997), known professionally as A-Reece, is a South African rapper, songwriter and record producer. He was raised in Pretoria, Gauteng.
Reece | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Lehlogonolo Ronald Mataboge |
| Also known as |
|
| Born | 27 March 1997 Danville ext. 8, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Origin | Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Labels |
|
| Website | babyboy1606 |
At 16 years old, A-Reece was signed under Raw X Productions by South African Hip-Hop DJ, pH. A-Reece gained national prominence under Ambitiouz Entertainment in 2015, following the release of his single, "Couldn't", which featured Emtee. A-Reece released his debut studio album, Paradise (2016) which produced the singles, "Couldn't" and "Mgani".[1] After disputes with management of the label, A-Reece left Ambitiouz to become an independent artist late 2016.[2]
In 2017, A-Reece collaborated with his friends and producer Mashbeatz to establish The Wrecking Crew. In those studio sessions, he released his second album From Me to You & Only You. In 2018, he released a collaborative album with Ecco the Beast and Wordz titled Long Lost Letters (L3), the lead single was "Welcome to My Life". In October that year he released his fifth EP, And I'm Only 21. In 2019, he released Reece Effect.[3]
In 2021, A-Reece signed a distribution deal with Apple Music-owned A&R company Platoon, which specializes in packaging emerging artists before they get a major-label contract, and his mixtape Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory: The Mixtape was publicised in Forbes, Clash and Flaunt magazines.[4]
A-Reece's third studio album P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy (2023), debuted at number one in South Africa.
Lehlogonolo Mataboge was born on 27 March 1997 and came from Danville, Pretoria, Gauteng. He started writing music in primary school following the footsteps of his older brother Phologo Jody Mataboge, known as Jay Jody from the hip hop duo B3nchMarQ. He got his stage name A-Reece from his star sign Aries.[5]
In 2014, A-Reece released an EP titled Browniez EP. In 2015, A-Reece signed to Ambitiouz Entertainment and released his first single "Couldn't" under the label, featuring Emtee. He released Cutaways, an EP, on 29 September 2016, which consists of songs that did not make the cut for his debut album Paradise.[6] His debut album was later released on 21 October 2016, and topped the No.1 spot on iTunes just under 24 hours after its release.[7]
Following a financial squabble with Ambitiouz Entertainment, he formed the Wrecking Crew (TWC) in 2017 with MashBeatz, Flvme & B3nchMarQ. The Wrecking Crew consisted of A-Reece, MashBeatz, Imp tha Don, Ex Global, Wordz, Ghoust, Ecco the Beast, Enkei, Louw, Kri$h, Tyga Bankz, Mellow Don Picasso and Thando Nje. He released a single "Meanwhile in Honeydew" early in 2017. On 21 October, he released his second album From Me to You & Only You, which included Feelings featuring Flvme.
In 2018, he released "A Real N*gga Tale", which featured 1000 Degreez, and then released a collaborative album with Ecco the Beast and Wordz titled Long Lost Letters (L3), the lead single was "Welcome to My Life". Mataboge then released two EPs, Gwan Big Up Urself 2 in March and in October his fifth EP, And I'm Only 21. Early in 2018 Flvme, Ecco the Beast and Mellow Don Picasso left the Wrecking Crew due to financial disputes.[8]
In 2019, A-Reece released a single, "Carele$$", to address his squabble with Flvme. He then released his second collaborative album with MashBeatz titled Reece Effect. The Wrecking Crew changed names to Rvbberband Records.
In 2020, A-Reece had a fallout with MashBeatz and this led to him collaborating with his older brother Jay Jody. He also released a number of singles, including "$elfish [Exp.2]", which lead up to the release of his mixtape Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory.[9]
In 2021, he released his second mixtape Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory containing 13 tracks. He also released his third collaborative album, Heaven Can Wait: The Narrow Door, Vol. 1, with Jay Jody. The album included "The Confrontation", which is a song that addresses his beef with his former producer MashBeatz.[10] In December 2022 A-Reece was featured in Africa Cypher (Hennessy Cypher) that took place in Nigeria, which also featured artists such as Vector, M.I Abaga, M.anifest and Octopizzo.
2023-present: P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy
His third studio album P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy, was released on 20 October 2023.[11][12] It was supported by two singles: "Bruce Wayne" and "Ving Rhames".[13]
P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy debuted number 1 on iTunes All Genres Top 200 Chart, became his first album to reach summit of the chart.[14]
"Ving Rhames" debuted No. 47 on International Top 200 and No. 16 on the Local Top 100 respectively.[15] In addition "God Laughs" reached No. 17 on the Local Top 100 and No. 16 on International Charts respectively.[15]
His studio mixtape Kill The King: the mixtape, was released on 13 September 2024 .[16] The mixtape debuted number one on iTunes, and acquired 3 million streams on Spotify in just a week.
He is well known for his collaboration with a clothing brand Vans. and back in 2019 he had fans speculating whether he was sponsored by Nike
Ambitiouz Entertainment came under scrutiny after artists Fifi Cooper, B3nchMarQ, A-Reece and Flvme left the label in a public dispute.[17][18] Artists claimed that they decided to part ways with the record label because of financial disagreements. Fifi Cooper went on to say that she had been signed for over two years to the label yet had not received any payment for her performances, as well as royalties.[19][20] The record label also went on to remove all of A-Reece's music videos from their YouTube channel and his Facebook page was also deleted. A-Reece released "Loyal" where he addressed his reason for leaving Ambitious Entertainment. In the song A-Reece slammed his former colleague Emtee for staying with the record label. Seven months later on his album Manando, Emtee responded with a diss track called "Crown" calling A-Reece "whack" and "emotional" on songs.[21]
Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZA | |||||||
| Paradise[22] |
|
1 | |||||
| From Me to You and Only You[23] |
|
— | |||||
| P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy[24] |
|
1[25] | |||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||
Mixtapes
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Forever King |
|
| Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory: The Mixtape |
|
| Kill The King: the mixtape |
|
Collaborative albums
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| L3 (Long Lost Letters) (with Ecco & Wordz) |
|
| Reece Effect (with MashBeatz) |
|
| Heaven Can Wait (The Narrow Door vol. 1) (with Jay Jody & Blue Tape) |
|
Extended plays
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Browniez |
|
| 1997/03/27 (The Best Things in Life Are Free) |
|
| CUTaways |
|
| Gwan Big Up Urself 2 (You Should've Taken Me Seriously) |
|
| And I'm Only 21 |
|
| The Burning Tree |
|
| Deadlines: Free P2 |
|
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Come Up" | 2014 | Non-album single |
| "Couldn't" (featuring Emtee) |
2015 | Paradise |
| "Mgani" | ||
| "?" | 2017 | Non-album singles |
| "Sloppy" | ||
| "Meanwhile in Honeydew" | ||
| "FourTwenty 4:20" (featuring Flame, Ecco and Ex-Global) | ||
| "Feelings" (featuring Flame) |
From Me to You and Only You | |
| "Kim Kardashian" (featuring Ex-Global and Wordz) |
2018 | Non-album singles |
| "Amber Rose" | ||
| "Welcome 2 My Life" (with Ecco and Wordz) |
2019 | Long Lost Letters (L3) |
| "A Message From Reece" | Non-album singles | |
| "Blood in Blood Out" | ||
| "Carele$$" | ||
| "In Hi$ Image [Exp.1]" | 2020 | The Exp$ |
| "$elfish [Exp.2]" | ||
| "Formula [Exp.3]" | ||
| "John Doe [Last Exp.]" | ||
| "$trictly for My Bitch" | 2021 | Non-album single |
| "Re$idual Self-Image" (featuring Ayanda Jiya) |
Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory: The Mixtape | |
| "The 5 Year Plan" (featuring Wordz) | ||
| "Morning Peace" (featuring Jay Jody) | ||
| "Tuff Luck" (with Jay Jody & Blue Tape) |
Heaven Can Wait (The Narrow Door vol. 1) | |
| "Ridiculou$" (with Jay Jody & Blue Tape) | ||
| "Couldn't Have Said It Better Part 3" | 2022 | Non-album single |
| "Bruce Wayne" | 2023 | P2: The Big Hearted Bad Guy |
| "Ving Rhames" | ||
| Str8 to hell | 2024 | Kill The King: the mixtape |
Guest appearances
| Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Got the Feeling (Interlude)" | 2024 | Kelvin Momo | Sewe |
| Award | Year | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Category | Results | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South African Hip Hop Awards | 2016 | Himself | Lyricist of the year | Won | [26][27] |
| "Couldn't" (featuring Emtee) | Best video | Nominated | |||
| "Ameni" (with Miss Pru, Fifi Cooper, Emtee, B3nchmarq, Saudi and Sjava) | Won | ||||
| Song of the year | Nominated | ||||
| Best Collabo | Won | ||||
| 2021 | Himself | Lyricist of the year | Won | [28][29] | |
| Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory: The Mixtape | Mixtape of the year | Won | |||
| Himself | Artist of the decade | Lost | |||
| "The 5 Year Plan" (feat. Wordz) Directed by (SXMZX for Poison Cure Productions) | Best video | Lost | |||
| "Hustlers Prayer" (with 25K) Directed by (Nate Thomas for Uprooted Media) | Nominated | ||||
| Best Collaboration | Lost | ||||
| MTV Africa Music Awards | 2021 | Himself | Best Fanbase |  Cancelled |
[30][31][32] |
| South African Music Awards | 2022 | Himself | Artist of the year | Lost | [33][34] |
| Today's Tragedy, Tomorrow's Memory: The Mixtape | Best Hip Hop Album | Lost |
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