18-year-old Brooklyn native Desiigner hit it out of the park on his first try with “Panda,” garnering radio play almost immediately and catching the attention of Kanye West, who quickly signed him to G.O.O.D. Music. He’s been catching a lot of flack, however, as his sound is nothing like NY’s signature sound and much more like that of Future’s – an Atlanta native – but Desiigner isn’t scoffing at the comparisons. After joking about it on Instagram earlier this week, the BK rapper spoke about Future in a new interview with Complex.

“God gave him a blessing, but he gave me a blessing too,” Desiigner said. “I ain’t gonna doubt the man’s music. He make beautiful music too. Music is made every day. Big ups to him, big ups to Future. I actually like Future’s music. I like his music, you feel me. I’m not a hater or a critic on him, you know, I do me. God bless him, God bless me.”

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He also spoke on not having an NY sound:

“I’m here to actually deliver art and deliver the creation, you know, wherever the music brings somebody. If it makes somebody want to do this or inspires people to step to another level or my level or whatever you’re from. I love to, you know, just inspire people however they wanna take it.”

On knowing “Panda” was going to be a smash:

“The second I put it out, it became a special record. Once I put it out it was already like 5K [streams] then over the weekend just went to like, 200K. Before “Panda” I had a buzz already. I was on the radio. I touched radio before through a couple features I did in the past and a couple of artists that I connected with. I had collaborations with some other artists. After that, everyone was used to hearing me. I was putting my music out. Everyone was in love with my name, they was in love with my style, in love with the funk, you know, dig the flavor.”

Check out the full interview over at Complex.