The story of Jersey Shore-based rap artist and producer Token Genius begins with learning how to record and make beats in the summer of 2009. He would go on to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Delaware and play in University ensembles, balancing formal training with mixtapes exploring his own sound. Years after his first commercial release, 2017’s Searching The Signals, Token Genius has returned in 2021 with another self-produced album Twentywanting. Citing left-of-center rap and pop as production templates (The Cool Kids, M.I.A, Lorde) and bands from all offshoots of hardcore as lyrical inspiration, Token Genius intends to become the exception to the rules of rap- hence the logo of an asterisk.

2020 presented its challenges to creativity- a pandemic, social injustice and the politicization of both- but Token Genius found time to reflect. On his new album Twentywanting, the artist/producer started with a twenty-question writing prompt asking himself about his first decade of adulthood. Inspired by his new views of the Shore, TG* crafted instrumentals with sounds of the beach and a band-on-the boardwalk feel. The music that follows is an honest examination of self and the issues that 2020 forced into daily conversation. Twentywanting shows Token Genius learning from his past and applying the lessons to a chaotic present.