Young Jeezy has kept fans waiting three years for his oft-delayed album, but he has good reason. The Atlanta rapper explains what took him so long to drop Thug Motivation 103.

“I’ma keep it real. At the time, you know I had to go live life,” he told Hot 93.7’s Jenny Boom Boom. “I was on two big tours [with Lil Wayne and Jay-Z], so I was just doing a lot of rapper things. I get my music from the streets and livin’—and I didn’t live. I didn’t do Jeezy. I was doing Young Jeezy, the rapper, but I wasn’t doing Jeezy. So I went back home and kinda just got out and started moving around. It just all came together.”

Jeezy, who is currently headlining a tour across the country, took his time with this album, the follow-up to 2008’s The Recession.

“I wanted [this album] to be special because I promoted it for so long,” he explained. “And I feel like if you’re gonna make somebody wait for something, it’s gotta be right.”

While he will always represent the ‘hood, he has expanded his horizons.

“This is my fourth album, so I had to show the growth quite naturally. Everybody knows I ain’t standin’ on the corner no more, so I ain’t even wanna go that route. I had to go kinda worldly. The world is my trap now.”

A remix to his celebratory single “Shake Life” will arrive “real soon.” “I’m gonna put another artist on it, somebody that I happen to think fits the record,” he hinted. “It’s gonna be big though. Actually I was trying to get him on the original version but it didn’t happen fast enough, so I’m just gonna make it the remix.”

TM 103: Hustlerz Ambition is due September 20 featuring Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Drake, André 3000, and more.