TONIGHT, FORMER ONE Direction star Zayn Malik announced that he had signed a record deal with RCA.

The move comes after months of speculation over what path the singer was going to take and following a rather public beef with producer Naughty Boy.

Tonight the singer shared a selfie taken in front of a giant RCA logo signing what appears to be a contract.

And not only that, but he also offered an explanation for why he left One Direction in the first place…

And to really demonstrate his commitment to realness, he posted the following:

The first tweet has left many One Direction fans in a tizzy with some wondering if Zayn is insinuating that One Direction don’t make “real” music…

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Zayn, what do you mean?

#OneDirectionIsReal

For his part, Zayn retweeted this tweet and seemingly clarified that he wasn’t dissing his former bandmates…

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He’s just trying to be his authentic true self, you guys.

It wasn’t all drama, though — he found time to retweet this fan’s joke:

Real and easily amused, it seems.

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