Gucci Mane has quietly dominated the game for the last few years, despite only being released from prison this past May. The Atlanta rapper released hundreds of songs and several projects during his incarceration, and played an integral role in the growth of what’s been dubbed “New Atlanta,” a legion of young rappers and producers–Young Thug, Mike Will Made It, iLoveMakonnen–that all benefited from being Gucci’s apprenticeship, even from behind bars.

However, now that Gucci’s out, he’s off the bench and in the game. His mixtapes and albums aren’t getting airmailed in from his studious engineer anymore, they’re recorded live and star-studded. (Everybody Looking, his first post-prison LP, drops tomorrow and will feature Drake and Kanye West.) According to a recently-published New York Times profile on Gucci, penned by revered scribe Jon Caramanica, Gucci’s new album is his most focused work yet, and that’s due to more than Gucci–born Radric Davis–mentally willing himself to stay in the game.

Speaking of his past issues with drugs, Gucci had this to say. “In hindsight I see it for what it was: I was a drug addict. I was naïve to the fact that I was numb.” By his estimates, Gucci suggests that currently, he’s fully sober for the first time in roughly 17 years. “I can’t say I felt happy my last six, seven years in the music business. I was just numb. You told me that I was doing good or told me I was doing bad, you hated me or loved me, either which way I greeted with nonchalance. It was sincere nonchalance — like, I really didn’t care.”

Speaking about how he managed to steer clear of the vices that were dragging him down, Gucci didn’t sugarcoat the withdrawal process. “Death. It feel like death. Your body just craving lean bad. Stomach tore up, can’t think straight. Just mad at the world. Temper so short, so violent, so aggressive. So just rude and toxic.”

You can read the full profile here, and grab Everybody Looking when it drops on Friday.