"Shattering the Sadboy Image" Interview with Reggie Becton

Hear R&B artist Reggie Becton talk about his artistry, influences, and outlook on life

The following is from a written interview done with emerging R&B artist Reggie Becton. In this interview, we discussed the music that inspired Reggie growing up, his dream collaborators, his desire to break free from his “Sadboy” image, and much more! We also talked about some of the tracks from Reggie’s 2025 album The Last Great American Summer. Be sure to read through the whole interview, and check out the album when you’re finished. Enjoy!

Click her to listen to the album - The Last Great American Summer

Interview

Sonic Savor: “Your two EPs (Sadboy Vol. 1 and 2) leading up to your sophomore album The Last Great American Summer placed a heavy focus on sadness being at the forefront of your music. With this new album, we see you breaking free of this image and highlighting different aspects of your experiences as an individual. How did the process of exiting the “Sadboy” era come about? Did you feel a certain way that prompted you to no longer identify with that phase, and the record then sprung from that feeling? Or did you create a record embodying a mood and phase that you strive to be in?”

Reggie Becton: “Funny that you asked that... it’ll make sense soon. Wink, wink, wink.

I felt a great sense of relief exiting the Sadboy era. I think I was just tired of the dark world I had created, and honestly, I was tired of wearing that mask of sadness. I got to a point where I couldn’t tell if art was imitating life or if life was imitating my art.

Then people started calling me “Sadboy” in public, and that’s when I knew I needed to shed that character for a bit. The Last Great American Summer was definitely born out of my desire to separate myself from Sadboy. I wanted more fun. I wanted to live life without constantly thinking about love and heartbreak. I just wanted to be free in every facet of my life. There was so much happening during that time, and freedom was the only thing I could think about. That’s really what inspired this album.”

S: “Who is your dream collaborator for your next album? This could be a writer, producer, artist, instrumentalist, etc.”

R: “Dream collaborator without a doubt is Sasha Keables, My Brother Tone Stith and Don Tolliver at the moment.”

S: “How does your genre-bending tendency represent the types of music you listened to growing up; the music that shaped you?”

R: “I listened to a lot of go-go growing up, and go-go is all about genre bending. You take hit records and throw them over the sounds of go-go, so from an early age I learned there really weren’t any rules.

Being in my older brother’s go-go band taught me how to play with sounds and juxtapose different melodies against unexpected chords. Then at home, my parents were always playing completely different things. My dad had Anita Baker, Scarface, and Tina Turner on. My mom was playing Lauryn Hill, Kirk Franklin, and Fergie. My sister was blasting Destiny’s Child and Brandy. Then every morning MTV had me falling in love with rock and pop.

Shoutout to my Aunt Lala for getting me that Christina Aguilera CD for Christmas because… “Genie in a Bottle” still slaps.”

S: “I think your music is sometimes thrown into the box of being pure 100% R&B, but this whole album demonstrates how you plan to both challenge and expand upon this label that’s been given to you. How do you feel, as an artist, when your music is categorized as a singular genre? Do you love being considered an R&B artist, or do you want to be known as someone who often incorporates different genres into your sound?”

R: “I actually love my music being classified as R&B. People may hear influences from other genres or feel like I’m blurring the lines sometimes, but R&B is the foundation of everything I do. I approach every song through an R&B lens because, in my opinion, R&B is one of the foundations of modern music.

Tattoo “RNB” on my neck. That’s how serious I am about it. I’m proud to be an R&B artist.

My initials are R&B lol”

S: “That’s awesome! I didn’t even put that together. So I suppose it’s a great thing after all that you’re classified as R&B.”

S: “Your song DND (track #7 from The Last Great American Summer) is a lovely example of your genre-bending touch in action. Did this song surprise you during the creative process, or was the vision set in place from the beginning?”

R: “That song actually came from an old beat that had been sitting on my main producer Etienne’s laptop forever. He pulled it up one day like, “Yo, I made this a long time ago,” and I immediately said, “Bro... we have to do something with this.”

The rest was history.

The craziest part about that record? Phil Collins was a huge inspiration.

...And that’s all I’m gonna say on that.”

S: “Do you see yourself expanding on this new era in your next projects, or are you not sure which path music will take you down in your future as an artist?”

R: “Right now, I’m just living. A wise friend once told me that living is part of my job as an artist, and I’ve really embraced that. I’m in my research-and-development era right now, collecting experiences and figuring out what the next version of me sounds like.

Speaking candidly, this last album took a lot out of me in every aspect of life. It’s been challenging to shake off those bruises and immediately jump into another project. I almost stop creating! But I know it’ll all work itself out. Inspiration has always found me, and when it hits this time... it’ll hit.”

S: “Would you say that writing about sadness is healing and therapeutic, or would you say that it makes sadness even heavier? Or perhaps it’s an untamed combination of the two?”

R: “Writing about sadness is incredibly healing and therapeutic. Honestly, sadness and pain have been some of the biggest catalysts for my growth as a man. I’ve realized that sadness is just another part of life. It’s not going anywhere, so you might as well learn how to embrace it. Love it the same way you love happiness. Don’t let it become who you are or dwell there forever but don’t be afraid to sit with it either. There’s beauty in learning from it... and honestly, you can even have a little fun with it.”

S: “I love that. You offer some great advice there.

I have one final question for you before we wrap up - how would you say visuals play a part in bringing your musical projects to life?”

R: “Visuals are everything to me. They’re my sanity. They’re how I really show people my world and what’s going on inside my head. It’s the one place where I get to combine all of my favorite things: camera work, framing, color, fashion, movement, music, and storytelling.

It’s funny because I actually took a bit of a break from visuals during this last album. They’re incredibly expensive and time-consuming to make, and I really wanted people to sit with the music first.

But I missed them. Visuals have always been one of my favorite forms of expression, so moving forward, you’ll definitely see me diving back into that world in a much bigger way.”

Thank you so much for reading this interview! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!