FOR MR EAZI, making his debut album, The Evil Genius, took a ton of introspection — so much so that it felt like therapy. The singer spoke to Rolling Stone in a recent interview about his LP and the process behind the project, which touches on themes of family, love, commitment, faith, and joy.

Eazi said he went to one of his producer’s homes just to “catch a vibe” and ended up recording three songs before he even knew he was going to start working on an album. “I made the music because I was trying not to make the music,” he said. “That’s where the magic is.”

The first song Eazi recorded on the LP was “Exits,” which ended up being the LP’s closer. “I was putting my mind on what was on my subconscious,” Eazi said, adding that it also took looking at a beautiful painting at a hotel he was at influenced how he approached his record: “I knew how I felt when I saw that. It felt so personal.” Eazi even commissioned 16 works of art by African artists to accompany each of the album’s tracks.