Russ released his sophomore album ZOO on Sept. 7. The project has garnered some attention for songs criticizing SoundCloud rappers, the state of hip-hop, drug abuse, and more. On the latest episode of Genius’ For The Record, the Atlanta rapper sat down with Genius’ Head of Artist Relations Rob Markman to discuss the album and go in-depth with his forthright quotables.

“Zoo’ is the first body of work I’ve ever made while being in the belly of the beast that is the zoo, which is fame, industry, all this crazy ass shit going on,” Russ tells Genius. “I’m just giving my observations on it, so when you’re seventeen and you just, ‘I wanna get on,’ you don’t really know what you’re trying to get into. You think you want success and all that stuff, but… you’re gonna have to deal with all this nutty ass shit. And it’s like, I must have skimmed over the fine print.”

“I just wanted to make songs that were true to me, and have a message, and make kids feel like they can do it, too, because I was never the best at any of this shit,” Russ explains. “I never wanted to do the game and like I said, people on the outside looking in, they don’t know that there’s a lotta things behind the scenes that you gotta call into this person, and you gotta say this, you gotta talk to this person, shake this hand so that they fuck with you, so that your name don’t get rubbed wrong.”

On “monotony” in rap production

“What I was saying is that unfortunately a lot of the production is monotonous and sounds the same, which is why they always get chewed up and spit out,” he says. “The ones who make unique shit last forever… My suggestion to upcoming producers is make timeless music, instead of trying to fit in with the times.”

Watch the full interview above.