How did your usual process change when Drake arrived in Atlanta to work on What A Time To Be Alive?

It was different in a great way. We've got another great set of minds in here, with more ideas. It wasn't like we're emailing back and forth, we were all in the studio together. It was like boom boom boom—upstairs, downstairs, back, and forth. Metro’s in one room making beats. Southside might be over here. I might be upstairs finding some songs that I think Drake will like. Drake’s downstairs with Future. I'm coming downstairs like, “Metro, I think I found something!” And he's like, “Hold on, I'm about to finish this beat." It was creative juices on another level.

What was Drake and Future's chemistry like working on this project?

They've worked together before, but not like at this time. This is intense, planned out—we're gonna spend this whole five or six days together and lock in. But there was no fighting or disagreeing. I'm impressed by Drake, because as great as an artist as he is—he's the top of the food chain—he's humble enough to ask questions. For instance, Metro’s production is different than 40’s, so rapping on a Metro track is different than rapping on a 40 track. Because Drake’s such a perfectionist, he asks, “How should I come in on this? It’s a Metro hop and it’s different. Future’s used to this hop, so I want to make sure I catch it just like Future.” With his greatest hits, you think he's just going to come on and rap however he wants. But for him to stop and ask Metro or Future or me? Then he'll do it and kill it.

Drug use seems to feature heavily into Future's new music—

It's just like some hippy shit. We're music heads, I'm into the psychedelic, Woodstock—I had a mixtape a couple of years ago called Black Woodstock. So all that acid and trippy shit, it's nothing new. Flower child, I wish I was raised in the '60s or '70s. He's tripped out, it's not sadness. You don't have to worry about Future, he's on Cloud 9, high off life.

What comes next?

We tried to do some things the first couple times [with Pluto and Honest] and we were reaching. We were trying to make a crowd like us, trying to get to a certain demographic. But all we had to do was make music we like and then we got to them. To me, it feels like we just started, like we're new artists. For DS2 to get treated like this, it's like a second chance. If I would have never gone to prison, the hard drive never would have gotten lost. If the hard drive would never have got lost, [Future] never would have made Beast Mode. If he never would have made Beast Mode, we never would have made 56 Nights. If 56 Nights wouldn't have happened, DS2 would never have happened, because we were on the 56 Nights wave and we're like, oh we have to give them the street shit now. Then DS2 happens, and it's a roll. Those 56 nights in prison was the ultimate sacrifice for the second career for everything.