Tone Royal’s Up Late

Peeling back his layers, Austin rapper Tone Royal (Ray Villarreal) has dropped an animated video to his new single, the P. Soul-produced “Late,” lead track from an upcoming EP of the same title.

The song addresses the local MC’s insecurities about his music and past relationships. The stimulating clip features the equally animated rapper dropped in alongside familiar movie characters in iconic moments. “Late” is the soundtrack to a cartoon character’s life.

“The character in the song is reliving glamorized magic movie moments,” explains Villarreal. “No matter how great or scary the situation becomes, or how powerful the character becomes, he’s hindered by his own vices, fears, and faults. The cool thing is that he keeps adapting to the situations he’s in.”

The vast majority of Austin musicians employ day jobs to support their dreams. Sometimes the two tracts run into each other. For example, Villarreal conceptualized part of the song while driving for Uber, but he had a slight problem.

“It’s funny because I thought of the chorus while I had a passenger in the car and I’m the type of dude if I don’t write something down right away I’ll forget it,” he says. “It was 10 minutes of me trying not to forget the chorus while rushing the passenger to their destination.

“As soon as I dropped ’em off, I wrote the chorus in the parking lot of a Marriott.”

Villarreal met the director and animator Travis Sheflin while performing in Los Angeles. After some brainstorming together over the video concept, the rapper met with the former Cartoon Network intern in Austin to cover the treatment. The clip only took a month and a half to produce.

“He’s brilliant,” says Villarreal. “He took my ideas and elevated them to another level.”

“Late,” take it in: