After Kanye West and his G.O.O.D. Music crew finally dropped Cruel Summer on Tuesday (Sept. 18), West gave fans a look into the music’s creative origins.

To make sure he had the proper theme or feel, West looked to the visuals and used the album art as a standard.

“I actually would have the album artwork in front or me while I was working on the songs,” he said. “I would listen and say, Does this song sound like this packaging looks?” 

West said he and his G.O.O.D. Music team looked for inspiration in many places, including artists outside their camps. 

“We started off by just getting everybody in the lab together,” he explained. “We reached out to other camps, to do something new and exciteing in hip-hop. Something minus all the politics.” 

And when it came to quality control, he explained that it was a group effort

“One track might just have 30 people’s opinion on it,” he continued. “It’s not just about the track listing and name, it is about a communal style of work. We spend just as much time working on the actual album packaging as [we do] a video concept or a song. Everything is equally important. –E. Parker, CBS Local