On “Finish Line / Drown”—the triumphant conclusion to Chance The Rapper’s Coloring Book—Lil Chano From 79th snuck in a disturbing line that suggests one of rap’s brightest young talents almost threw it all away:

Last year got addicted to Xans

Started forgetting my name and started missing my chance

Yesterday, GQ ran a profile on Chance where he broke down exactly how Xanax affected his life and music. The profile details how in 2014, after blowing up with Acid Rap and moving to Hollywood, Chance’s life became a cycle of drugs, girls, and months struggling to cover the Arthur theme song. In it, he says:

I had the pool. I had the movie theater. I had the basketball court. I was doing it real big. I was Xanned out every fucking day. I was just fucking tweaking. I was a Xan-zombie, fucking not doing anything productive and just going through relationship after relationship after relationship. Mind you, this is six months. So think about, like, how could you even do that?”

Thankfully, Chance eventually moved back to Chicago, got off drugs, and spent March and April of 2016 putting Coloring Book together. But this does hint at why it took Chance three years to follow up Acid Rap. It also might explain why he put out Surf in 2015—an album where he took a backseat to Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment.

Drugs still do play a role in Chance’s music—after all he did record most of Acid Rap while on acid. “I was just doing a lot of drugs, just hanging out. I was gone all the time,” he told GQ, about making his breakout mixtape. While acid abuse is not very common, Xanax has a high potential for abuse thanks to its rapid onset, calming effects, and brutal withdrawal effects.

Chance has referenced Xans in his music on many occasions. Back in 2012, on “Coming For Your Spot” he rapped, “Chance laughing em off, hand smacking em all Xanax in a ball.” On Gaines’ 2013 cut “We Are” he was still positive about the drug, boasting: “That Xanax be my dance.” On 2013’s Acid Rap’s “Interlude (That’s Love)” his perspective still didn’t change:

What’s better than leaning and needing a Xan

Is hitting your zan

Dreaming a dream could mean leaving the land.

In retrospect, it’s very clear when Chance realized the evils of the drug—if you play close attention to his lyrics. He took a clear stance against it on last year’s Snakehip’s “All My Friends”—his entire verse is about addiction and he flatly states: “I done seen how the Xan did my main man” and “Dying is for real, niggas dying off of pills.” By 2016, the drug seemed clearly in his rearview because on “Angels” he rapped, “I got caught up with a little Xan/Can’t stop me but it slow me though.” He also tweeted this in 2013 in response to a fan.

Thankfully, Chance seems to have gotten the monkey off his back. This tweet from 2015 says it all.