Fresh off the momentum of the wild and rambunctious Quarantine Radio, Tory Lanez came through in the clutch with his bar-heavy album The New Toronto 3, a project many fans are already praising among the year’s best. Following its release, Tory hit up Ebro for a conversation on Beats 1, dropping a few interesting tidbits about his future trajectory as a free agent.

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When Ebro remarks that Tory wasn’t really in his R&B bag for this go-around, the rapper admits he’s been hoarding some of his best records. “I’m out the label, bro,” says Tory. “I’m gone. I’m out. I’ve already recouped my publishing deal, my album deal. I exceeded five albums. This is the last one, and I want to give them a mixtape. I don’t want to give the label I was with at the time, not the label but the team I was with, I didn’t want to give the team those records I felt were my Earth Changing records. That’s why I haven’t released any of my golden songs.”

“The closest thing to that was when I released The Chixtape 5. This one is a similar situation in that I’m giving a little bit more effort,” says Tory. “It’s past the standard I needed it to be at for me to feel comfortable with it. It’s just enough to let them have this and it’ll still be good enough. It’s still good records on there, it’s not bad records.” An interesting take, but an understandable one to a degree – the only question is whether Tory will be able to outdo himself even further on his first independent release. In any case, we look forward to seeing his attempts.

For more from Lanez, including his recording process, his love of storytelling, and of course Quarantine Radio, check out the full clip below.