TORONTO -- Michael Buble is venturing into musical territory that is both familiar and entirely new with his latest album "Nobody But Me."

The award-winning Canadian crooner hasn't strayed from the upbeat pop tunes and swinging jazz standards that have become his signatures.

But in a move that may raise eyebrows, the multiple Grammy and Juno winner decided to include a guest rap verse on the album's title track, recorded by Black Thought of acclaimed hip-hop group the Roots.

"I knew that he could bring it to another level," said the Burnaby, B.C., native about the rapper (whose real name is Tariq Trotter).

"I respected him as a musician. Listen, I thought he had a great vocabulary. I think he's a highly intelligent human being, a kind human being. And the sense of rhythmic schemes, of stuff that I'd listened to, was always so good.

"I knew what I wanted of the song," he added. "I could hear this hip-hop beat ... with this kind of rockabilly jazz, Louis Prima-esque arrangement. I had talked about different people, but the whole time, it was Tariq."

Others around Buble weren't as certain. He said he started to receive calls from people saying he was at risk of losing his audience, and that there may be segments of his listeners who simply wouldn't embrace the move.

"I was literally shocked that it was an issue. I just thought: 'Oh, yeah, jazz was the birth of this music, this beautiful music created by African-American people has grown into the seed of everything I love; to swing, to rock 'n' roll, to blues, to hip-hop, to rap to R&B, to everything we listen to."'

Buble said a phone chat with his publicist helped reaffirm his initial plan.

"She said: 'Honey, I've watched you fight the last year to own this record,"' he recalled.

"'I've watched you fight for the ability to sit and look journalists in the eye and tell them that you took chances and that you took risks and that you were going to show them growth and you were going to make a statement.... Now, you're telling me the night of the mastering that you were going to let these people stop you?'

"She gave me just the lift that I needed, because it's scary when people tell you that you're going to lose everything."'

"Nobody But Me" comes three years after the release of Buble's blockbuster "To Be Loved," which topped the charts in 11 countries and earned a Grammy for best pop vocal album.

His seventh studio album marks a key first for Buble, who makes his debut as co-producer.

"It's like an actor who directs himself in a movie," Buble said. "For me, it was a way for me to be more authentic in covering the standards, a way to really have a great sense of closeness to the songs for my audience.

"When they put the earphones on and they listen to something like 'God Only Knows,' or when they hear me singing 'The Very Thought of You' or 'My Baby (Just) Cares For Me,' they get a sense of being right there with me, that intimacy."

Grammy winner Meghan Trainor is Buble's duet partner on the track "Someday," which was co-written by her and One Direction's Harry Styles.

Hip-hop also played a role in influencing the creative process, with Buble citing the collaborative approach to creating music depicted in the N.W.A. biopic "Straight Outta Compton."

"My favourite artists in the world -- Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat Cole, the Mills Brothers, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin -- they all recorded the way I wanted to record, which is to walk in with a band, and put them through their paces, have a great arranger, have the best engineers in the world, and the best musicians, and then find a way to make this song yours, to reinvent and to reimagine it."

One of Buble's favourite tracks was his stripped-down cover of the Beach Boys' classic "God Only Knows."

"I closed the lights off and put a picture of my kids on my phone and I sang the song -- and I meant it," said Buble, who shares sons Noah and Elias with wife Luisana Lopilato.

"I sang it once. Not five times, not eight -- one time through. Live. Weeks later, I would add a quartet to the performance. But the standards, I felt like there could be more intimacy.

"And I think when people hear it, they can hear me smile. They can hear when I'm emotional.... I kind of missed those things in previous recordings."