Genesis Owusu: ‘REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE’
Genre-bending creative Genesis Owusu returns with his new album, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE. Speaking with The Note ahead of its release, he explains why all music is political, reconnecting with his Ghanaian roots and how growing up in Canberra shaped his musical journey.
Words Emily Wilson // Image Isaac Brown
Genesis Owusu is glowing. A clear blue sky stretches out behind, and the abundant sunlight forms a blinding halo around him.
“I just carry that around with me,” he grins over a mid-morning Zoom. “That’s just me.” The Canberra-based rapper and singer is gearing up to release his third album, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE, a searing feat of political rage and musical ambition.
“I think the world is in an extremely chaotic, paranoid, strange, delusional and cartoonish place right now. What better subject to write about?” he says. “I also think, more so than ever, we need to get back in touch with recognising each other’s humanity. That’s an essential theme of the album: community, through all walks of life, all ways of thinking. I wanted to write about it because it’s pertinent and it’s what is happening right now. I felt like it was necessary.”
Owusu’s political stances on the album are, in fact, impossible to ignore. With lyrics like, “In the UK, smoking packs of an inbred racist. Fuck the king you know my basis,” he does not mince his words. He even, delightfully, describes Elon Musk as “a fuckin’ weirdo.” He has no patience for those who are of the belief that politics should be segregated from music. “I don’t know if art is ever not political,” he says. “To make art in general, you have to go through all kinds of political apparatus to even be heard. Someone saying that art shouldn’t be political, it doesn’t really make sense from the foundation.”
The first time someone told him to stop being political was when he was in high school. “Something racist had happened, and I was talking about it, and they were like, ‘Don’t be so political’. Like bro, that’s just my life. Not being political is not an option for me.”
Since the release of his debut album Smiling With No Teeth in 2021, Genesis Owusu’s career has been a rousing success story. Both his debut and his sophomore album Struggler won ARIA Album of the Year and enjoyed mass critical acclaim. Following up such triumphs must be no easy feat.
Pressure, he admits, “rears its ugly little head every once in a while. But I have to remind myself that the reason I got here in the first place was just by doing whatever the fuck I wanted to do.”
When he was making Smiling With No Teeth, he explains, he was jamming with his band in the studio and having an absolute blast. “But we all knew in the back of our heads that there was a good chance that it wouldn’t achieve anything in regards to an industry level. Up until that point, I hadn’t heard of an album like Smiling With No Teeth getting recognised on an ARIA stage or anything like that. But we made that album anyway, because it was fun, because it was truthful and honest and authentic. So, whenever the weight of expectation comes, I have to remind myself that I’m here in the first place by trusting my instincts.”
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Owusu grew up in Canberra after his family emigrated from Ghana when he was just two years old. He recently visited Ghana for the first time in eleven years and re-immersed himself in that identity, renewing his passport and citizenship. The visit, he says, “shaped basically all of the visuals for the album.”
The music videos for ‘STAMPEDE’ and ‘LIFE KEEPS GOING’, as well as elements of the visualiser for ‘PIRATE RADIO’, were all filmed on his Ghana trip. “It all happened really organically because I didn’t go over there to make these videos, I went to visit my family. My parents had just moved back and retired. So I was just there on a personal level, but with my artistry, it’s not devoid of what is happening in my real life. So we took the cameras along with us, and it was a very nourishing experience.”
It was his first time in the country as a fully-fledged adult. “As much as I felt like I was showcasing Ghanaian subcultures to my Western audience, it was very much them showcasing it to me in real time as well. It was important to me on multiple different levels.”
Canberra, often a city described as small and dull, is another place that shaped the album. He describes growing up in Canberra as “one of the best things” for him as an artist. “There wasn’t any kind of scene or trends that I felt like I had to fit in with. Coming of age in Canberra, it was a blank canvas that I got to paint whatever colour I wanted at any given time.”
The music scene in Canberra is characterised by a DIY quality, he explains. “There are really talented artists here, but because there isn’t that much infrastructure… It’s like, if you want to be an artist in Canberra, you’ve got to really want to be an artist. You have to make it from scratch, and I think that builds character, that builds mettle. I wouldn’t be who I am today without growing up in Canberra, I don’t think.” He adds, “Adelaide, Canberra and Perth have always felt very connected in that way.”
Canberra shaped him, but his reach is international. “For some reason those lyrics that I wrote in my bedroom in Canberra resonate with this guy in Lithuania, you know?” With REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE, he is sitting on an album that explosively and expertly expresses his values. As an artist, Genesis Owusu is passionate about “truth on a mass scale.”
He says, “I don’t really speak unless I have something to say.” Likewise, he doesn’t release music unless he has to, and he is bringing us REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE because he has to.
REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is out now via OURNESS. Catch Genesis Owusu performing at Thebarton Theatre on Saturday 23 May. Tickets on sale now at ticketmaster.com.au.
