Don’t listen to the critics, Tory Lanez’s debut album I Told You is a must-listen. You’ll read complaints about how certain records sound like other people (Kendrick Lamar, Fetty Wap, Drake), how the storytelling concept is reminiscent to executions on good kid, m.A.A.d city and My Krazy Life, and whatnot. But musically, Daystar Peterson creates an appeasing body of work that deserves mention in the Best Albums of 2016 conversations later this year. Songs like “Guns & Roses” and “Cold Hard Love” are just some of the many gems that showcase the singer’s bleeding talent on both the vocal and songwriting tips. Now that we got that out the way, Lanez stopped by The Breakfast Club today to fill in more about the album, along with other topics concerning his journey.

“That’s the thing about this album, it’s to show people [how far] we came,” he told the morning show. The singer also credits his hometown as a fuel of motivation. “People have this misconception about Toronto,” he said. “People have a misconception of how rough it is out there for us when we grow up and the politics that we still deal with that people don’t think we deal with,” he explained. But I’m not here to talk greasy of Canada. But I am here to tell the real stories that we go through as young men in Canada.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tory talks about almost signing with Justin Bieber, that infamous show in Houston, and how some of the songs on I Told You could have been for other artists. “Some of those songs should have been for other people,” Lanez said after being asked about the album lack of identity. “Some of the songs are for other people. I definitely write for a lot of people and some of those songs were for other people when I wrote them. Then I was just like, ‘Nah. I have to keep this. I can’t keep doing this to myself and giving my greatest songs to all these other artists.”

For more highlights, watch below.