Album Review: Jay Foss

By Paul Esposito

2.5 Nancies

TOP TRACK: "ARIZONA STATE OF MIND"

BOTTOM TRACK: "GOLDENEYE"

At the risk of stating the obvious: Jay Foss is a college rapper. Unsurprisingly, ThisIsGenius is about college life and the problems of being a minority marijuana lover at an expensive, culturally anemic, private university. A lot of Foss' style is imitative, with some heavy Kanye influence on flow and lyrics, but in a sedentary way that smells like the privileged affluence that often accompanies studentship at Syracuse University. Foss isn't fighting any wars here. There's no profound epiphany, and the production smacks more of Funk 'n Waffles than the progressive beats we've been hearing from Clams Casino and The Weeknd (who Foss samples in his final track with moderate success). Where Foss succeeds is in his use of subtlety and dynamism on "Arizona State of Mind," a track with a subdued hook that's much catchier than Foss' more direct approaches.