Chris Brown's been a busy man lately, from shooting a dizzying number of new videos for his album Fortune, out July 3, to a still-murky bar brawl involving Drake and Meek Mill. Luckily for us, we got to sit down with the R&B singer to discuss his new album and its cryptic cover, meeting Michael Jackson and working with Diplo, Nas, will.i.am, 2 Chainz and more.

"You can see on the album cover it's like a code, it's like an encryption for my fans," Brown explains. "I wanted to do something different [because] I'm into ancient aliens..." Whoa!

Brown also explains the meaning behind his album title Fortune: "It's not money, wealth. It's not that for me. It's basically the blessing of being able to do it! I'm fortunate to do it." On working with everyone from Nas to will.i.am, he added, "I went back with the old guys." Watch the clip above.

In the below video, we also spoke to Brown about how he almost collaborated with Michael Jackson. It's well-known that Jackson was Brown's idol, and when Brown was 17 he performed for the King of Pop. "People loved the performance. I went backstage and met him," Brown says. "He said hi to my mom, he was respectful. It was just one of those great times in [my] life."