Today (Dec. 8), Billboard published a new interview with Rod Wave, who spoke on everything from his past struggles to his current successes, the last of which includes his fifth studio LP, Nostalgia. One achievement mentioned was the artist’s third straight No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in the past three years — a feat that immediately placed him alongside Drake and a certain pop icon.

“Being compared to Taylor Swift, you can’t even wrap your head around that kind of s**t,” Wave said of his accomplishment and its effect on his career. “I remember ninth grade, being on my school bus listening to ‘Blank Space.’ Being in these conversations, it don’t really hit you. I was just on the sidelines. Now, I’m really in the game. I went from the nosebleeds to the franchise player of the team with three rings.”

Currently, Wave is in the midst of his “Nostalgia Tour” alongside Ari Lennox, G Herbo, Toosii and Eelmatic. One of the more talked about moments from said tour was when he reenacted a scene from his “Come See Me” video. In the clip, the “Cold December” rapper jumped from a high-story balcony in a moment of mental weakness before revealing that the act was all in his head.

“That was from a dream I had,” Wave explained about the stage fall and its deeper meaning, which stems from past bouts with depression. “When I come out, walk onstage, and look at [the ladder that I climb to the stage], it’s really to show people, ‘Don’t get up and do that when you can do this. You don’t know where life can take you.’ I’m walking out to a whole arena full of people looking back up at me. Imagine [if] I would’ve [gone through with committing suicide]. I would’ve never made it to this part. There’s a whole meaning behind it, a bigger picture.”