In the last year, Skinnyfromthe9 has had his fair share of ups and downs. After being arrested and charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping in his hometown of Somerville, N.J. in 2018—the rapper claims he never kidnapped anyone—things were looking rather dire for Skinny.

Then freedom came in November of that year, and he spoke to XXL about the details of the case. After three months behind bars, Skinny hit the ground running, releasing his project, It's an Evil World, the same month he was released. Now, the 23-year-old artist has even more in store with another solo project and a joint project on the way with Fetty Wap.

Fetty and Skinny have a history of working together. In explaining how their 2018 collab "Too Fast" came about, it turns out that Fetty is the one who reached out to Skinny to lock in. "It just shows Jersey united, because for some reason, Jersey don't fuck with Jersey," Skinny shares, pointing out the divide within the Garden State. "We puttin' on for the city. I think we just make dope-ass music together. Those good vibes blossomed into an entire collab mixtape that'll be out in the future."

The two New Jersey natives have a clever title for their joint mixtape as well. "It's gonna be titled Skinny With the Zoo because Fetty always used to scream 'Zoo Gang' and he's like King Zoo," Skinny shares. He's eager to compete with the many other rappers who have teamed up to release collaboration projects. "Everyone is doin' collab projects now, and I was like, you know what, let's do one and just shut everybody the fuck up," Skinny boasts. "’Cause we make the best music."

Skinnyfromthe9 will also drop a solo project this year. According to him, The Comeback Kid will have a different vibe from It's an Evil World—both the solo effort and the Fetty Wap joint mixtape don't have release dates yet. As for the title of Skinny's solo project? "Because everybody doubted me, and they thought I was never gonna come outta jail and I'm back bitches."

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