I walked into my room the other day with a definitive purpose. Once I entered, I looked around, paused, scratched my head, and whispered to myself, “Okay, I know I came in here for a reason.” My confusion persisted for the following few minutes until I admitted defeat. I felt like I was losing my mind—a feeling we’ve all experienced throughout our lives to varying degrees.
DMV’s emerging MC, Trap Pat, is also familiar with that feeling. On January 2nd, the conscious spitter dropped his track, “Losing My Mind,” along with an incredibly dope animated visual treatment. Trap Pat clearly poured his soul into this song, given that he wrote, recorded and engineered the track himself—ironic considering the song’s content. I came across “Losing My Mind” yesterday without much expectation given his relatively unknown status, but shit—this kid is talented.
“Losing My Mind” is a massive metaphor for the corrupt music industry. It’s an interesting spin on an age old concept: what is the price of one’s soul, of one’s fate?
Trap Pat welcomes us to a subway train, crammed with a collage of despondent individuals going through life’s motions, portrayed by animations akin to the Gorillaz. The video’s protagonist is a lowlife-type figure, who initially appears desensitized to the human condition: he easily pickpockets passengers with zero guilt, signaling it’s become second nature. As the video continues, he surveys the subway riders, who quickly transform from humans to demons; the protagonist’s skewed perception of humans justifies his incessant stealing (or he potentially sees himself in the passengers).
However, our disgust turns to sympathy, as Trap Pat raps vicariously about the principal character's woes of not having a deal or awareness, forcing him to resort to “dishonorable” measures: making a pact with the devil, AKA signing a deal. He gets what he’s always wished for: money and popularity. But at what cost? He now has no soul, no identity, no purpose. What was once a hopeful individual has been reduced to a bed of disgust; all he has left is stealing. And so he does, further estranging his mind.
Trap cleverly symbolizes a kleptomaniac as a signed artist who continuously robs the public by generating commercial, heartless songs—feeding them unhealthy content to increase his ends, compensating for his lost soul. It perpetuates a vicious cycle. The message and wisdom he longed to impart on intellectuals has now fallen on deaf ears; his biggest fan is his label’s bottom line (the devil). As the song and video progress he reveals a resounding truth: he's been the source of his depression; he’s the only one to blame; he's the one who sacrificed his fate; this whole time he’s been running from the devil, but really he’s just been running from himself.
Please watch the video, and support a kid who’s keen on discussing real content.
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