Since he debuted on the national stage as half of the Virginia Beach-based brother-brother duo Clipse, Pusha-T has always been a rapper’s rapper. On vaunted albums like Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury from 2006 and his 2013 solo debut My Name Is My Name, he has taken the subject of moving mountains and mountains of drugs to virtuosic levels, becoming a darling of critics and rap nerds along the way. Since 2015, Pusha has also been the president of Kanye West’s label G.O.O.D. Music, an outfit that is currently rattling off a weekly run of seven-song records from its less single-minded roster recorded in seclusion in Wyoming. (His gut punch of a verse on “Runaway” also worked as the emotional center of West’s Grammy-winning My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.)

Released on May 25, Pusha’s Daytona was the first of the lot, and it was met with his by now standard adoration. The album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hip-Hop and R&B chart, and, two weeks later, has four songs in the Hot 100. West also produced every track, and like all things Kanye these days, it came with a media bump. (West’s extra-music exploits of late have included pro-Trump tweets and his infamous claim on TMZ Live at the start of May that slavery sounded like a choice.) When Pusha’s long-simmering feud with Drake boiled over into brief, outright beef on the record—and subsequent releases—it only fanned interest. (Find the full blow-by-blow, here.)

All of which is to say: 16 years on from the first Clipse album, and with a new 21-minute record to his name, Pusha is having the busiest month of his career. But in his telling, the Drake and West stories are just noise. On Wednesday, Pusha sat down in a conference room at Vanity Fair’s offices to discuss Daytona, the forces that threatened to interfere with it, and his utter peace of mind.

Vanity Fair: What was Wyoming like for you? The ye album release looked crazy.

Pusha-T: There are absolutely, positively no crazy nights in Wyoming.

Even at the release?

I’m not an outdoors person at all, so there’s moose and foxes and birds with the wingspan of humans. And things that chase you. And spiders. Not into that. Being in Wyoming was 100 percent a focus group of getting music done for real for me. Our leisure time was going to get barbecue in town and three-mile walks up the mountain. Other than that, workout and that’s it.

It sounded a little bit like the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [Hawaii] sessions.

Little different because I could go to Louis Vuitton in Hawaii and Wyoming is really just . . . it has a rehab-esque feel to me. When you’re just in the middle of rebooting, you know what I’m saying? Cleansing your palate.

What was it like working with Kanye over there?

Man, it was fun because I feel like especially with Daytona, we really, really homed in on everything we loved in hip-hop, sonically. With the album, the process sort of went like this: he made me make a list of 25 records that I just loved. R&B, rap, whatever I loved.

We just kept digging. He kept digging and he just wouldn’t settle for anything other than greatness.

You’ve dialed in your style over such a long period of time now. But Daytona’s your highest-charting album.

Yeah.

So why do you think that is?

Yeah, I don’t think I’ve switched it up that much. I think that my producer knows how to compete with the times. See, I don’t think that what I do goes out of style, the fundamentals of hip-hop and rap and lyricism and double entendres and all that. Street culture doesn’t go out of style, it’s happening every day. Crack era, opioids, whatever. Scamming, whatever you’re into. That shit is happening still, right now.

But you’re one of the only people right now who’s both popular and doing those kind of bars.

Yeah.

Is that how you feel?

Yeah, I do. I feel like that because I think that I’m afforded the luxury of great production. I feel like a lot of people who do this have to chase the trend because they don’t have a lane. I actually have somebody carving out my lane. That may happen every once—every three years. [Laughs]

What about the lyrics on this album? To me, you sound like you’re explaining things. Who are you talking to when you’re doing that? Who are the students?

Man. I think that students of taste level are the students that I’m talking to. Those who look to have a certain taste level, who want to have a certain taste level, and those who have no taste level. And I feel like I’m just sitting here telling you, “Listen man, this is really what it is.” When I tell you, “the rooftop can host a paint-and-sip for like 40,” I’m really telling you, that’s what I'm bragging about these days. Versus my Jordans. Or you know, “had to find other ways to invest, ’cause you rappers find every way to ruin Pateks.”

It’s me setting myself apart and it’s me setting a standard and a bar. . . . That’s what rap is about to me. Rap is about coming on the block with the newest shoe, outfit, sweater on, and being like, “Look, you all know what this is, you don’t got this. I got it first.” That’s what rap is to me. And I feel like you have to speak about things in a certain way. Sometimes it’s killing off brands, sometimes it’s . . . it’s all of that energy, it’s competitive. It’s a super-competitive energy.

Are you upset with the way things are going?

No, I feel like . . . when I speak about pink hair and stuff, it’s just that you have to claim your space and your stake. And I feel like that’s a lot of what’s going on right now. But my shit is just as flawless. My shit is fire and you have to say those things so people understand. “No, you’re doing all of this, but what he’s doing over here is next level as well.” You know, people are blinded a lot by the shiny shit. You know what I'm saying? And the obnoxious shit and the colorful shit. . . . I could sit all 16 of my Rollies across this table and somebody would be like, “Man, they don’t got diamonds all over ’em?” I don’t do that, I do factory everything. It says something about being classic, and that’s what I try to give off—classic.

Does it get harder and harder for you to be that way the longer you go? The more distant you are from dealing drugs? You’ve got that line on “Infrared” about a gram as a gram, but also as a kind of song.

I don’t think so. It’s not harder for me because I feel like I’m still surrounded by a lot of people who are still of that world. I just moved from Norfolk, Virginia, a year and a half ago. And then I moved to Bethesda, Maryland. Two hours away, but let me just get away. And to be honest with you, I’m still outside. I’m still so outside. When they book me, they’re booking me at clubs where the energy is still prevalent. It’s just everywhere. Sometimes, if I don’t feel that energy, I go seek it. I’ll be like, “Man, let me go to Atlanta real quick, what they got going on down there?” And just feel that energy, feel that street energy. And I feel like that’s something I’m never going to leave, because I feel like the streets really dictate everything, ultimately.

You sound right now like you’re in such a good state of mind, like you’re at peace with things. And that’s hard for me to mesh with everything else that’s going on in the media related to you, and this very high-profile battle you’ve been in. Does that distract you? Do you enjoy it?

No, it doesn’t really distract me, man. I feel like everything happens for a reason. This is a part of hip-hop. It’s a part of hip-hop that my fans actually love.

But his fans not as much?

Probably. Or don’t care as much about it.

You and Drake are obviously both huge heavyweights in your field. But it’s almost like you guys are playing different sports or something.

Totally. And that’s something that I’ve always known during this whole thing. I feel like at the end of the day, I know that I never want to make a Drake record. I know that I never want to make a Kanye West record. Really, to be honest with you.

You ever tell him that?

Yeah, I told him numerous times that I never want to make “Stronger,” ever.

You don’t like that song?

No, it’s just not for me. And you know, I groove to all of it. All of their records. But I feel like I’m so laser at what it is that I do. And I feel like people can’t get what it is that I do from anywhere else. I don’t believe that. “Come Back Baby” on the album is literally about me sitting there saying, “O.K., look, you made me the president of G.O.O.D. Music, I’m going to do this Hillary campaign, I’m going to be on this prison-reform crusade. I’m going to try to figure things out, whether it be a designer or a whatever it is. And ultimately, [there are] people saying, “Damn, all you talk about is dope, all you talk about is drugs.” O.K., cool, that’s what I'm doing. As I’m doing this, then the rumblings start. “Where’s Pusha-T, what’s going on? Man, we need drug raps. Where the drug raps at?” I could show you some drug raps right now.

It’s the energy.

It’s energy. It’s drugs. It’s energy, it’s taste level. It’s competitiveness. Man, it’s putting you on this shit. It’s teaching, it’s perspective. It’s perspective that you don’t really get to hear. This is a very brash perspective.

And at the end of the day, it seems like Drake’s going to put out No. 1 records forever.

For sure.

And it seems like you’re going to put out these albums forever. And it seems like the beef is squashed. So is it all for nothing, or what do you think we’re supposed to learn from it?

I don’t even know. I don’t know what was lost or what was gained.

You talked about having a surgical summer with him, peeling the layers back. So it seems like you’ve got more stuff in the tank.

I mean, you know. These conversations have been had and, to my knowledge, it’s all over. It’s all over with.

Do you feel good about that?

Yeah. I mean, listen: I’m ready to be back to the music for real. Just feeding my base, that’s it. That’s the most important thing to me at all times.

Here’s a question I’ve seen a lot. You talk about Russia on the album and people talk about you now as an investigative journalist. Where did that photo come from? Do you have a team of researchers?

No, man, people love me.

They feed you tips?

People really love me, man. People love me and people are disloyal as fuck. People are so disloyal, man, it’s so weird.

There’s all this other stuff about Kanye, apart from the music.

Yeah, man.

Are you worried about that overshadowing the music?

I was at first.

Then what happened?

You got to understand, I was finished with my album. We’re focusing on his and everyone else’s and, of course, TMZ comes out, and I’m like, “Hey bro,” you know. . . . I worried about it initially. Super-loud. I knew nothing was going to be louder than that. From that point forward, I knew I wasn’t going to do press. I had no intention on doing any press [before the album release].

Because you wanted to have the music speak first?

Right. But I didn’t have any singles, I had nothing. And then if I was going to do press, we were just going to talk about everything he was doing. So I was like, “I’m not doing no press.” And we had talks about it and I was just like, “Listen, this is super-loud and at the end of the day, we’re going to just have to message ourselves.” With you spearheading the messaging. Here comes Twitter.

Must be stressful.

Yeah, and I'm not one to really lean on anybody. It’s like, “O.K., boom, we did the album.” I take the album and I run.

Do you feel like you’ve had a chance to enjoy [the album’s release]?

I really have, man. Because I really do believe there isn’t going to be an album, [a] rap album, better than mine this year. I don’t think so. I don’t think the stars have aligned for anyone else like they’ve aligned for me with Daytona, musically. Just where [Kanye] is, it’s super-competitive sonically. Lyrically, I feel like I’m laser with this shit right now.

Yeah, I saw you play it and you looked so focused.

I know what I’m aiming for, I know what I want. I know what makes me happy, you know what I’m saying? I don’t want any more than what makes me happy, I don’t need anything else. It’s weird being at this level, at this point in my career.

If you put out an album in like 2044 about dealing drugs, I wouldn’t be surprised. But by the same token, I wouldn’t be surprised if Drake’s putting out a No. 1 single in 2044.

It’s my lane. My lane is just my lane, that’s it. . . . I think about myself right now and just knowing my lane, knowing what I want to do, knowing who I want to talk to every time. Knowing that I’m not ever reaching to grab anything extra. And people accept me at this. Man, I’m going to dial in so crazy. I’m going to dial in so, so crazy every time just to speak to those people. Because I feel like I have it. When I don’t feel like I have it, then I just won’t do it.