Gunn, you mentioned earlier that, before you came down with COVID, you were in Wyoming for a minute. I think no one has to guess as to why. What was your experience there like?

WG: I went to Sunday Service and [Kanye] was talking about his next project—how he wanted me to be involved, do some music and just help behind the scenes, all of that good shit. The original plan was to go to Cabo and the next thing you know, he's like, “No, how about we just go to Wyoming at first and then we just go to Cabo in a couple of weeks,” because at that time, we’re still all taking corona lightly.

I played him the album and he loved it. I just wanted to see his facial expressions, just off of the music, because I know I have a good ear for production. So I just wanted to see what his face was like when certain records came on, production-wise. So he loved it and he played some of his new album, songs he wanted me to get on and be a part of. Then it just started snowing crazy. We ended up leaving that night. But we've been talking ever since.

He just designed a crazy jacket and he sent me the picture like, “Yo, this is my new sculpture.” I tell him, joking, “If you make another sculpture, I want it!” And he says, “No, no, no—I made this jacket for you.” And I'm like, Yo, that's crazy. He was just like, “My next Yeezy season is based off of you.”

I talk to all these guys almost every other day. It's not fake love and fake energy. Anytime I ever reached out to Virgil, he's responded. I feel like all these guys see the new them. And maybe Virgil sees a little of him in me as well.

People are behind me because they want me to win. And that's what I love about it. I finally made it to where all the people I looked up to in the industry are people I can call friends now. And soon family.

VA: In the timeline of hip hop and rap, what we're talking about is black culture and black art being comfortable in its own skin, not being like, “We have something to prove.” If you list out everyone that's been named and on the album, from Premier to Tyler, the Creator. Or if you go back to Tyler, the Creator's Grammy speech about how he felt slighted by getting the rap nomination and not being nominated for Album of the Year. Or Ye and everything that he's been through. Or Jay or LeBron. Everyone that's involved with the West Side Gunn story is state of the art in every category.

What I think makes this story important in 2020 is that we no longer have this element within black culture that’s about competition. Maybe in the '90s while everyone was proving their skill—you could see that on the Premier/RZA battle. They were having to go back in their chambers being like, “Oh, I stood on this corner. You stood on that one and I was hearing your record and I was really trying to outdo that one, you know?” And that was where RZA was saying, or when Premier was like, “I work with these artists, you work with those artists. I worked with Hov one time that we didn't work again.” You catch that.

In 2020 we all realize how we all stand on our own ground. Any competition is more for the health of the ecosystem. This is the way forward. Everyone's celebrating each other and being like, “Yo, I want to work on your project.” Like me here, and Tyler’s beats on the new album. It's huge, from my corner. Tyler has the same sort of story of trying to make his own identity and no one taking him seriously. When I see his credit on the album, before I even get to that song, it lets me know there’s something happening.