When rapper Gucci Mane—né Radric Davis—talks about fashion, he does so with unabashed glee. You can detect it in a recent video the Atlanta-based rapper posted to his Instagram account, where, sporting a kaleidoscopic Moschino sweater, he excitedly points to his Day-Glo high-tops, fire-engine red Giuseppe Zanotti backpack, and even his girlfriend Keyshia Ka’oir’s glinting array of new diamonds. “Look at my shoes! Look at my bag!” he exclaims. It’s infectious watching him embrace his newfound obsession, especially for anyone who has been following his career in recent years. Currently on house arrest, serving the last months of a three-plus-year prison sentence, this turn for Gucci signals a much larger personal transformation from embattled rap star to pop culture figure. Consider it hip-hop’s biggest makeover in recent years.

Watch the exclusive premiere of Gucci Mane’s “Gucci Please” video.

For more than a decade, Gucci has maintained a level of cultlike success in the rap world, but his new album, Everybody Looking, debuted at number two last month on the charts after being recorded in just six days. Gucci has always been impressively prolific: The latest album, which also features Kanye West, Drake, and Young Thug, is his ninth studio production; even while in prison, he continued to release a steady output of mixtapes. And it was during his recent incarceration that Gucci successfully kicked a debilitating addiction to prescription cough syrup, known as “lean,” and took up a re-energizing gym routine in its wake.

Dropping 75 pounds in the process, recording his most critically acclaimed album to date, and sporting an irresistible smile, the 36-year-old rapper looks and sounds like a new man. Enjoying the benefits of kale over drugs and alcohol, a newly sober and trimmed-down Gucci proudly announces he can finally fit into, say, the Balmain shearling jacket he sports in his “Gucci Please” video, which premieres on Vogue.com today. In fact, his robust online shopping habit (a by-product of both his stylist’s influence and the circumstance of house arrest) has introduced him to plenty of new designers and certainly contributed to his growing archive of, yes, Gucci designs. But it’s the steadfast candor with which he talks about his evolution that has everybody looking—and listening.

Via email, he tells us what inspired him to hit the gym, what keeps him motivated, and what he really thinks about fashion in hip-hop these days.