The freestyle in this video was used to make the Potential track “Copper Wire.”

Wearing thin, circular glasses and a wintry mix of black and grey, Hinton is a cerebral presence. Books about World War II, computer coding, and economics line a shelf in the corner. “I had some weird economic theories going around the Occupy movement,” he says, “so I got really into trying to figure out what all the derivatives were.” Four white boards take up much of one wall, and the former theoretical physics student at Brown University uses them to work out math problems “just to stay sharp.” At one point, he goes on a tangent about black holes and photons and quantum computing that I am definitely not equipped to begin to understand. He sees both physics and music as infinite realms that can never really be solved. “With both art and science, any goal you reach will lead to another three or four things to look for next,” he says. “With this new record, I’ve advanced a lot of the themes that were on my first album, but I only have more questions now.”

Though Hinton used a similar YouTube-sourcing process to make his 2013 debut LP, Nonfiction, with the new record, he decided to reach out to the people he was sampling in an effort to shine a light on their talents, get their blessing, and offer a stake in the song’s publishing royalties. While most of the artists were thrilled by the opportunity, there was also some confusion. Kruddy Zak, who originally posted that freestyle video five years ago, was reasonably skeptical when Hinton originally reached out to him on Facebook. “He was like, ‘Wait, are you joking?’” Hinton recalls. “But once he realized it was real, he was just happy his art had gone somewhere, because I don't think he's freestyling anymore.” (To further expose the artists he sampled on Potential, a forthcoming documentary film showing their personal stories will be released this spring.)

By surrounding his unpolished vocalists with lush sonics and morphing beats, Hinton often manages to lift up his Internet collaborators while retaining their guilelessness—offering a beautifully modern new creative paradigm in the process. And with 300 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every single minute, he won’t be wanting for source material anytime soon.