When Moneybagg Yo was working on his Speak Now album, his goal was to “deliver a body of work for my day-one fanbase who been rocking with me since Federal 3x.”

The album features melodic tunes like “Drunk Off U” with Chris Brown and the Morgan Wallen-assisted “Whiskey Whiskey,” but Moneybagg says he’d been experimenting with his singing voice long before he collaborated with either artist. 

“I got 80 of those type of songs before even Chris [Brown] got on it,” he tells Billboard. “I was experimenting and playing with the craft and the talent. It came out good and I put Chris on it. I got one called ‘I Feel It,’ and the Morgan Wallen situation.”

Of the Morgan collab, he says it was two to three years in the making, adding it came together because Morgan’s a fan of his work.

“He’s actually a big fan of me. We been locked in for like two or three years,” the rapper says. “We had the song when we first locked in off the rip. I had it for like a year and a half, or two years, and he’s been on me about putting it out. … The perfect time is now.”

Bagg notes that he’s in the part of his career where he’s “really about enjoying what I’m doing and expanding at the same time” because he feels he has “nothing else to prove.”

“I got all these plaques, I got success,” he says. “Just basically coming off a two-year break. I’m just letting them know I really do this. Don’t play.”

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