Brownsville MC I.O.D is many things on the mic…but he’s actually not I.O.D anymore. The young spitter recently celebrated his birthday and gave himself the gift of reinvention, changing his name from I.O.D, a self-interpretative title, to Jay Ar. In one of his last official acts as I.O.D, he dropped a video for “Soot,” one of the standout songs on his TheTheTheBrownsvillain EP.
Riding producer Yung Neil’s thumping 808s and funhouse of melodies swerving about them, I.O.D lets loose with a meta criticism of the low bar for hip-hop fame, rhyming, “made this song just to get booked, little dab is what it took,” before letting us know “if the s—t is what you want then the s—t is what I cook.” He them makes the best of his two short verses, cheffing up yet another exhibition of his elastic flow and lyricism working in tandem.
The Jason Steven Ruan-directed video showcases Jay Ar in a dark room, skating and vibin’ with some friends. The spotlights that roam through the dark give the black and white video an edgy aesthetic, and inadvertent symbolism that the shine is now off the I.O.D era and onto Jay Ar.
