On Conscious D MOD's very notable "Mirror Revolution"
From Brick City
By D Menzies
One of the most interesting albums that came out semi-locally to Chilltown in the past month is Conscious D MOD’s “Mirror Revolution.”
It’s ambitious conscious rap that’s not ashamed of being conscious.
Some of the videos on Conscious D MOD’s social media accounts utilize AI for the imagery, and while I’m not a fan of that, it’s worth noting that on these accounts there’s one image in which Conscious D MOD posits himself as the savior of Brick City (the nickname for Newark, NJ). In hip-hop a bit of the grandiose is to be expected, but none of this would be worth noting if “Mirror Revolution” wasn’t a substantive album.
Its intro sets a high bar and is worthy of a title beyond “Intro.”
Then “Mirror Revolution” kicks in, with its treatise on this conscious approach to hip hop that isn’t “nostalgia rap.”
As narrator, Conscious D MOD (CDM) has great turns of phrases; the revolution of the song and album’s names start in the mirror," CDM states.
How does CDM describe where this particular mirror is located?
“Concrete jungle built on a counterfeit script,” Conscious D MOD raps. “Allow keys to be moved while locks were rigged.”
It’s a place where “ we govern our own but the puppet in the chair still answer to the throne” and there’s “Gatekeepers posted at the gate. Let the poison flood in. Call it ghetto fate.”
Locally, places like this anchor the most affordable parts of their cities in the inflated NYC- and near-NYC real estate market. But they are one of the most unspoken fixtures of American life — the historically redlined, disenfranchised Black neighborhood where everyone is chalked up to a monolith … the other side of some scale that suburbs were sold as representing. In a land of decay for social safety nets, they are among the places hit most hard by social and literal infrastructure decay; they are where the dismal quality of life is dismissed as — not the system’s general indifference to complaints from those with a lack of capital — as the fate of people who choose as much.
“How did rap music fall so far?” CDM asks on “Build Or Battle.” If “the mind’s the gate that leads to your fate,” CDM speaks to two fronts on this track — one that isn’t just a trap — pun intended — of battling for nothing. The other is much more about mental outlook and focus in a way that I’ll circle back to.
“Freddy and Eddie,” meanwhile, which is “dedicated to Brick City and all cities relating,” is a highlight.
Here, Conscious D MOD traces back into the life of Freddy — circa 1968 — whose dad came from a world where he practically just got off the plantation, with no guidebook on how to succeed no matter how bright he is.
Eddie, on the other hand, is plugged into all kinds of opportunities to learn and grow his dad didn’t have.
Although it deals with navigating the trappings of a challenging landscape, “Mirror Revolution” is not dour. It’s an album big on fortitude as buoyancy, and in that vein, “Better and Better” is a particularly fun listen.
For the references to entities like gatekeepers, though, I feel like there’s a heavy bent on the idea of being able to mentally manifest one’s way out of this landscape.
Manifesting, I think, is a dicey framework and not atypical in rap along conscious lines; and certainly not in the cultural zeitgeist in general.
But ultimately, what distinguishes that here is CDM’s idea that the universe works with people a bit more when they’re working for the good of other people, instead of just to enrich themselves.
“When people’s part of the vision, the vision’s near,” CDM raps on “Pure Saturation.”
As CDM establishes early on, there’s a lot of “poison” — more even, than, the obvious drug allusions. All of it erodes any notion of community beyond a politician’s convenient demographic framework. That reality makes resilience a tired trope, because what’s been the societal reward in your Chilltowns, Brick Cit(ies) and Stoke-on-Trents but more to be resilient against?
But overall, “Mirror Revolution” shines with a lot of depth in a brick landscape that isn’t anointed as branded hip-hop incarnate; and especially with how little resources go toward that and instead to what’s been a bankable lowest common denominator, it’s refreshing to see pop up.
You might also be interested in
More music: https://www.chilltownblues.com/t/music
This post sans paywall is made possible by our paid subscribers. Thank you.
Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber, if you have the means. We know it’s tough times. You can also visit our support page, or, if you like, buy a shirt or something else we’ve designed at chilltown-blues-shop.fourthwall.com.