Tony Valenz puts his heart on his sleeve to expose the brittle psyche of a recovering drug addict. After almost 10 years and nine mixtapes deep, No Xanax Needed is a showcase for the SoCal lyricist’s redemption songs, coming out of the dark as if Gloria Estefan was his rehab sponsor. The lean nine-track project is mostly straightforward boom-bap and rhymes of thankfulness for life’s highs and pitfalls to learn from. Eight of the track are produced by Steelz, and his Top of the Food Chain honcho Hi-Tone examines finally having the ability to rid himself of the hazy shade of winter that once tore a crater into his brain’s frontal lobe and liver.
The song titles are each singular words to that give little room for doubt about the song content that describes chapters of his personal diaries. On the first track aptly titled “Purpose,” he sings over a sauntering three-minute R&B into without drums. The vocal delivery and “oh yeah” ad-libs inevitably makes you associate his approach to songwriting like Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon, Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak, Drake’s Nothing Was the Same, or any other emo rap record that is radio-friendly. Hi-Tone’s delves into his life of the past, present, and future as a single man in his thirties looking at a mirror while in the recording booth, and empathizes about dealing with discrimination as a Latino in the rap industry.
But the project saves itself from melancholic overtones with creative samples, soulful snare kicks, thumping basslines to give it an underground feel on tracks like “Fear,” “Selfish,” “Deep,” and the ode to his 1990s influences “Idols.” Hi-Tone’s Spanish-tinged accented letter enunciation makes the lyrics sound native to his 626, Covina, California roots. Two songs that he takes a risk away from the underground sounds of the aforementioned are the synth-heavy “Loyalty” and “Unity.” The latter has an interpolation of Sade’s celestial vocals on her 1993 song “Pearls” reworked into a cloud rap hymnal. This only works in 2016, which inevitably makes it sound dated for beat production trends. The extended player’s last track “Enjoy” has Hi-Tone rhyming over the backdrop of the same beat from Future’s “Stick Talk,” but without rapping in triples like the Atlanta rap star.
The majority of No Xanax Neededis viscerally therapeutic for Hi-Tone to leave his days of mental bondage behind once and for all. His rhymes sound in a mechanical cadence that relies on brevity to address his messages rather than multi-syllabic bars to clutter the beats. But his lyrical ability seems occasionally contained and falls flat (“Us two together like socks and a shoe,” or “All these tapes and these verses, I get no love/’Cause my skin’s brown like beans in a cup,” or “Life is really short, I call it fun-sized.”).
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No Xanax Needed comes off like a somber Christian rap record with songs of atonement and self-reflection. But can pray-for-my-downfall song be entertaining? It generally has much enjoyment from the musical arrangement, but there is two-thirds of the EP get automatic approval for its spiritual elements like a singer belting out a gospel song at Amateur Night at the Apollo with exemption from the audience and Sandman’s horn signaling for the performer to step off the stage. But feel-good stories like Hi-Tone exhibit the benefits of eternal sunshine for the drugless mind.
