Anderson .Paak has said that working with Bruno Mars is like having “a cheat code” because everything he touches is “dope”.

The pair dropped their highly anticipated joint album as Silk Sonic on Friday (November 12), titled ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’. It marks Mars’ first since 2016’s ’24K Magic’, and .Paak’s first since 2019’s ‘Ventura’.

Both artists sat down with R&B Now Radio on Apple Music 1 last week, and during the interview .Paak discussed how working with Mars and his band expanded his artistry in a big way.

“It was big for me. Like I was just trying to take it all in, live in the moment, like being in the studio with them,” he told host Ebro Darden. “I’ve done collabs with everybody. I don’t know not one person old, young, everyone on my checklist I’ve already checked and I’ve done all kinds of stuff, I’ve had records that have gotten Grammys but there’s stuff – but like theres always a place that an artist wants to go and I wanted to go straight to the top.

“And there’s a cheat code, you know what I’m saying? Everybody told me the cheat code is linking up with this dude. Get Bruno on your side, and yeah, it’s dope.”

He continued: “It couldn’t have happened unless it was organic and natural and everyday we would get to the studio and it was a blast. It was just jokes. Some days we didn’t even make no music, we just laugh all day and talk shit and ramble. We was having too much fun, man.

“I tell him all the time I have a lot of trust in him and that felt good too. I felt like a large part of my career I’ve done collabs and everything but it felt good to be able to trust a dude to try it like this – great vocal producer, one of the greatest vocalists I’ve ever worked with and just pushing me to a different level.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Mars talked about the concept of the Silk Sonic album. “We needed this to work. We just wanted it to feel like… feel special. Instead of trying to get too cute with the concept,” he said.

“It’s like, man, what’s more special than Anderson Paak behind a drum set singing a song and me having his back when it’s my turn, you know? And the band moving in the same direction, it was just like… it’s like a musician’s dream, being in the studio recording a song like that.” You can watch the interview above.

Meanwhile, Ghostface Killah has declared himself a massive fan of Silk Sonic, saying in a new interview that he’s keen to link up with the duo.

Speaking with HipHopDx, the Wu-Tang rapper joked that he planned to confront Mars over his absence from the project, noting that he has a particular affinity for the duo’s beats.

“Those are my beats right there,” Coles said. “Those are the beats they’re supposed to call me on and get on. You not supposed to leave me out of here. When I see Bruno, I’ma tell that n***a that you can’t leave me out of that shit like that man.”