As time progresses, Chicago collective Save Money has increasingly positioned itself as the city's ruminative conscience, never particularly judgemental or "concious," but simply interested in what it means to be from the Second City and looking to explore the topic from every angle.
Brian Fresco offers one of the best takes on this subject in his new video for "Peace of Mind," a song off his mixtape Mafioso from earlier this year. Although the project flew under a lot of peoples' radar, it's been steadily gathering accolades, and it features some of Save Money's hardest raps, most interesting production and strongest group efforts.
In "Peace of Mind," Fresco's words seem to unspool from his mouth, leading to carefully considered lines that pile up into punchlines, like, "Swear I can't see behind me work in a forward focus/I'm thinking Range Rover/You stuck at Ford Focus." He breaks into melody at the end, and an extended interlude in the middle finds him reflecting on various Chicago neighborhoods as shots of the city fly by. It's a thoughtul work complemented by III's off-kilter but calming production and director Elijah Alvarado's restless cuts.
But the most head-turning moment is the simple observation that people don't really know what to make of Chicago rap, a world that's frequently seen as nothing but violent: "When I die they'll read this and say a driller wrote it," Fresco says, almost as an aside.
Check out the video for "Peace of Mind" above. Fresco's whole Mafioso project is available here.
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