Kaytranada is quiet, to the point where I keep missing pockets of Quebecois-inflected words as they fall gently from the 27-year-old’s mouth. It’s a fitting coincidence: up until now, the soft-spoken producer, born Louis Kevin Celestin, has let his beats speak for him. In the early 2010s, his bedroom tinkerings felt revelatory to SoundCloud treasure hunters, dance music fans, and old school R&B lovers alike, and caught the ears of Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin. Kaytranada’s full-length debut, 2016’s 99.9%, showed just how far and wide his sonic influences could go—Haitian drums, wobbly R&B bass, extraterrestrial EDM synths, power-pop hand claps—and how big his features could get right out of the gate (Anderson .Paak, Vic Mensa, Craig David).

His new album, BUBBA, is less shy. Where 99.9% bopped between disparate styles (a trap number here, an R&B ballad there), BUBBA—which topped Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart—is 50 minutes of expertly chiseled groove. It condenses the Kaytranada nebula into a sound that’s so concrete and confident, it steals the spotlight despite a run of features that reads like a Now That’s What I Call Music playlist: Pharrell, Estelle, Tinashe, Mick Jenkins, GoldLink, Kali Uchis, Masego, and more. Since 99.9%, he's also notched his belt with in-studio assists for Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, Chance the Rapper, Mary J. Blige, and Madonna.

BUBBA doesn't just create a moment for Kaytranada the producer, it marks a waypoint for Celestin the person, whose life has come together over these last four years. He left his childhood home in the Montreal suburbs, signed his first major-label deal, and came out. Confidence followed, and you hear it in BUBBA.

Late last month in lower Manhattan, GQ spoke to Kaytranada about overcoming his shyness, coming up as a gay hip-hop fan, and turning down Dr. Dre.

Jacket, $2,700, and pants, $980, by Gucci / T-shirt, $100, by A.P.C. / Shoes, $550, by Lanvin / Hat, $260, by Begg & Co.

GQ: How have you been since the album came out?

Kaytranada: It's been good, man. People love it and I'm happy ’cause I didn't know if I still had it. I dropped the EP last year, but I felt forgotten, in a sense.

What made you feel like people forgot you?

The collaborations I was doing. There were a lot of successful collaborations, of course, but at the same time, there were a lot of them that were unsuccessful. Having people on the last album, I was just trying to get them on [BUBBA] and some of them... it didn't succeed. I just felt like maybe my beats were wack. It played with my mind.

In the lead up to the first album, you became known for your signature "Kaytranada Sound.” Did you feel like you had to try to distance yourself and resist the urge to go back there on this new project?

I mean...[hesitates] how can I say this? That became the Kaytranada signature sound in a sense, but, at the same time, I was still trying new things. That [sound] was just one new thing I was trying.

But now I’ve seen it evolve. [My sound is still] the same, but it's just me understanding more dynamics of how people wanna hear stuff.

You’re completely self-taught. Do you feel like you've become a more sophisticated musician?

Yeah, in a sense. When I did 99.9%, a lot of the beats in there were just beats that I had made in the beginning of my career. I first started the process in 2012 and it came out in 2016.