Young Thug just wants us all to be cool. Or at least that’s what the 28-year-old rap experimentalist, style icon, and #1 selling artist tells GQ during a conversation last Thursday night. It’s easy for him to say. Over the course of the roughly six years that the rapper has had the hip-hop consciousness lodged in the palm of his heavily-bejeweled hand, Thug has worn some of the coolest outfits, made some of the coolest music, and arguably provided an entirely new template for what the word “cool” even means.

But when Thug says cool, he’s not just talking about distressed Amiri skinny jeans and anaconda link diamond necklaces. He’s also talking about the type of cool that compels you to show appreciation for others and to do things that make people—people who aren’t you—happy.

So Much Fun, the project his label is calling his debut album (and, as of yesterday, the newly-christened No. 1 album in America), is Thug’s attempt to be the coolest dude in music. It’s everything we’ve come to want from the prolific iconoclast—oppressively good beat selection, scintillating melodies, and absurd lyrical hijinks like yelping “totally dude!” on a song called “Surf.”

GQ spoke to Thug about the new album, settling disputes with Gunna, and what he actually would like to say to Oprah.

GQ: This project is billed as your first “album.” I know that, with streaming, that doesn’t mean as much as it once did and it’s more of a label branding thing, but I’m curious if it being classified as an album changed your approach to the project at all or was it routine?

Young Thug: It was routine and it felt different because I was making music for myself. Not being selfish, but on a very humble scale, I was making music for myself—the way I like to hear myself sound and the way I want to dish my stuff out, but this time I really focused on putting out what people like. That's why it's so cool and people are merging to it and liking it. It's mainly because I honestly sat down and was like "Imma dedicate this album to the people. I'm gonna give the people what they wanna hear."

I love the album title: So Much Fun. Originally it was supposed to be called Gold Mouf Dog. What did Gold Mouf Dog mean to you and why did So Much Fun feel more appropriate for the project?

Gold Mouf Dog came from like, this album is a fun album, but it's also like the old me. It's also how I use to rap. It's also Barter 6. Not giving a fuck and just like being yourself and being you and being open and being a punk.

So with Gold Mouf Dog, I wanted people to look at me how they used to look at me like Young Thug. Like Gold Mouth Young Thug. Blonde Hair Young Thug. I wanted people to look at me like that, but I didn't want to go back to that image. I wanted to keep the grown, sleek look, but I wanted people to think of me that way, you know what I'm sayin?

Totally.

So, I was coming up with the craziest names like Gold Mouf Dog. Like as soon as you hear the name you're like "Ah shit, he's back on that."

A couple months ago when you were still working on the project you would hop on Instagram Live or post videos of yourself listening to snippets of songs. Were there any tracks that you were particularly hype about while you were making them?