🎧 Approved: Genesis Owusu

Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu has built a reputation for tearing down the walls of genre. His debut album ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ was a transcendent blueprint for modern hip hop; a fearless exploration of identity, experimenting with funk, punk and rap.

On new single ‘PIRATE RADIO’, his first release in two years, he once again refuses to assimilate and redraws the boundaries of his own sound.

With thumping electronic-punk production and a throughline of stone-cold bars, Owusu bares his teeth at the current state of affairs. His voice awakens a marching mantra, a protest that echoes atop textured guitars and bursts of gritty static. It feels on par with Outkast’s cult classic ‘B.O.B.’ (‘Bombs Over Baghdad’), but with a darker, more brooding sound.

Lyrically, he turns his focus on political puppeteers, widening class divides and culture-war distractions. “The rich are getting richer and us regulars are eating each other alive. Smoke-screened by paranoia-inducing culture wars and our own growing poverty”, he says.

It’s a protest song for an era of manipulation, disillusionment and unrest, and a reminder that, as Owusu puts it, “Someone’s gotta sound the alarm and break the hypnosis. And that someone isn’t going to be the guy saying immigrants are eating your cats and they probably won’t have a billion dollars in their bank account either. If Elon Musk has no more haters then I’m dead”. 

🎧 Listen to ‘PIRATE RADIO’ below