MGK has opened up about a significant turning point in his career, revealing that his new album Lost Americana is the first project he’s ever recorded completely sober — and, relatedly, he feels it contains his best vocal work.

During a conversation with Complex at the MGK Day Art + Community Festival in his hometown of Cleveland, MGK explained how the personal shift led to a creative breakthrough. According to the 35-year-old, his sobriety journey brought him back to the raw storytelling roots of his earliest work and gave him a deeper connection to his craft than he’s felt in years.

“This is the first album I’ve made completely sober,” MGK said. “I think we saw a more humanized version, something reflective of my earlier work. Ironically, even though I’m not rapping on the whole project, I feel like I started as a storyteller, and this album is getting back to that. Not having an excuse for my mind to be in a clouded state lets me look around and be aware, like, ‘I’m down bad.’”

MGK added that entering the holiday season in rehab greatly affected his creativity, as he wasn’t able to be with his family and could only speak to his daughter for 15 minutes on a controlled phone call. Entering the new year in rehab was no better, and the overall experience reignited the hunger MGK had in his early years.

“I feel like I went back to exactly who I was when I was making mixtapes and had nothing because I felt like I came out, and even though I have a house and a bank account that has some s**tin it now, like I truly felt like I had nobody on my side,” said MGK. “Right now, my hunger is so fierce. There’s so much angst about the misconception of who I am, still, even with two years of complete narrative reworking and showing the utmost vulnerability.”

He also said that he’s singing better than ever on Lost Americana now that his head is clear.

“I feel like I delivered my best vocal work, for sure,” he said of the album. “I was able to use my voice better than I ever have on other projects.”

MGK also acknowledged that, despite drugs once playing a major role in his recording process, they also limited how deeply he could connect with his music. That disconnect eventually extended to his audience.

“I loved cocaine, I loved codeine, I loved Adderall, I loved Perks, and I loved smoking weed,” he admitted. “They kept me in my chair with a microphone in front of me for 12 hours, but I realized I was not diving deep. My mind wouldn’t let me go beyond the grip those drugs had on me.”

He added, “I could say some wild bars, but again, when we’re talking about storytelling, I can’t even see outside of that haze to know what is actually going on in my life around me, to tell an actual story, and I kind of felt a disconnect with my fans at a certain point where they were like, ‘Bro, I’m not living that life. I don’t even know what that is.’”

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