A-Reece has finally released new music even if it comes a few days later than fans had assumed it would. After dropping a mysterious trailer two weeks ago, fans were convinced A-Reece was teasing his upcoming project Paradise 2 and that the release date was the 10^th of August—a date that appeared on a newspaper in the trailer.

It turns out, it's a single. One that features Reece's frequent collaborator, the R&B/soul singer Ayanda Jiya. "Re$idual $elf Image" is produced by Reece's long-time producer Mash Beatz. For the first two minutes of the song, Reece raps over Mash's keys and a bassline after a hook in which he's assisted by Ayanda Jiya.

The verse reveals an A-Reece who has had a paradigm shift and now has different priorities. He raps:

"Acknowledgement without the accolades/ still I celebrate 'cause any day could be the last day I hear this record play/ My heart is in a better place, my mind is in a different state/ so I don't really care what the records make/ how many lives can this record save?/ how many minds can it liberate?"

This somehow explains A-Reece's recent obsession with The Matrix—he is a different person. A clip from the 1999 sci-fi blockbuster plays between the song's beat-switch. It's taken from the scene in which Morpheus has just inducted Neo into the "real world" and tells him, "Your appearance now is what we call residual self-image."

There is no beat-drop on the song until the last few seconds when a second beat kicks in after Ayanda's mini verse. When he starts rapping again, he is accompanied by a soul sample, again without a proper beat-drop.

A-Reece is clearly not chasing radio airplay with this single which is the third song the Pretoria lyricist has released this year. In January, he released the songs "In Hi$ Image [Exp 1]" and "$elfish [Exp 2]". Both songs, which have since been deleted from Reece's SoundCloud page, had no hooks, just Reece rapping impressively throughout.

Stream "Re$idual $elf Image" on Apple Music.

A-Reece- Residual Self Imagewww.youtube.com