To keep his freewheeling raps about personal demons and debauchery sounding fresh, Danny Brown is constantly on the search for new entry points. For his fifth album, uknowhatimsayin¿, the 38-year-old worked closely with hip-hop icon Q-Tip to find a new register for his rambunctious style. “I always had a catch-lightning-in-a-bottle approach—do a verse in one take and try to capture it as fast as possible,” Brown says over the phone. “But with him you’re going to explore every option.” Tip’s methods brought a new sense of order to Brown’s chaotic music, producing his tightest songs yet. “I told him I can’t work with nobody else now: ‘You can’t do me like this and then leave me!’” he laughs.

Q-Tip wasn’t the only spirit presiding over Brown’s grounded, somber new record, though. As he explains, here are some of the other obsessions the cultural omnivore gobbled up while looking for portals into the strange, the poignant, and the hilarious.