Chilltown rapper Constant Flow explores "The Price of Paradise" with new album
By D. Menzies
You’re in paradise, and as Chilltown rapper Constant Flow says, “It’s like being in Cloud City,” a place above the rest of the world. “Paradise.” What does it take to be there, and what does it take from you?
Questions like that loom large on “The Price of Paradise," the latest album from CF (aka Nelson M).
For those who may not know, Chilltown is a nickname for Jersey City (JC) — which has become a paradise for various real estate interests and anyone with cultural capital (generational or relative wealth, in particular) looking for their affiliate Manhattan, which some of it overlooks.
“Corpse,” the album’s first track, sets a high bar. This is only in part because of the clever wordplay that utilizes “set,” like so: “Let’s go deep and get you highly up … set.”
Thematically the song is about hitting the marks on a checklist of things someone needs before they step out. In addition to establishing a sort of camaraderie to those who can relate to the island of misfit toys (per his reference, tis the season), CF explores being complete — regret-free enough to feel like should that corpse state come he’s checked everything off the list; and that means a commitment to being alive.
It’s also the dissection of a relationship, CF told Chilltown Blues. “I’m dissecting … This is the price of the idea of wanting to live blissfully with someone — that’s the price of paradise.”
It took a few listens for anything else on the roughly half-hour album to sink in as being able to match “Corpse” — the combination of CF’s delivery and Speedy Babyy’s production, and the shift to spoken word at the end, leaves that strong of an impression — but that happens shortly thereafter on songs that take a few listens to unpack because of the many ideas packed into their shorter duration.
“Hillz” is a good example of that, with its rapid-fire delivery and pop culture references. In the song, CF acknowledges those who died on what can be thought of as hills before they were paved over. In a way, he revisits a theme from “Ghetto Mermaid,” on a previous album, “Surus.”
Where is there to go when everyone wants a house on the proverbial hill, and “everyone” is people with what we’ll call particularly great credit scores? (Some people even want a house in JC’s proverbial Hill, but not the figures in “Ghetto Mermaid,” who can’t afford to consider anything else but the sea.)
