Reportedly proper beef, say (4)
I believe the answer is:
meat
'beef say' is the definition.
(beef is a kind of meat)
'reportedly proper' is the wordplay.
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'proper' becomes 'meet'.
'meet' is a homophone of 'MEAT'.
(Other definitions for meat that I've seen before include "Animal flesh as food" , "Chops, steaks etc" , "Flesh for eating" , "Ham, pork, chicken etc" , "Spam, ham, lamb etc" .)