On a video call with Genesis Owusu at home in Canberra, he’s talking to me from a room where the walls are plastered in album covers. Classics from Outkast, Lauryn Hill, Michael Jackson, Nina Simone, Kendrick Lemar, A Tribe Called Quest and N.E.R.D surround him like a make-shift altar to his musical heroes. “These were some of my biggest influences growing up,” says the artist as he looks around, lovingly readjusting a Miles Davis LP back into position.

“It was a very musical household,” he continues of his upbringing in the Australian capital. His family migrated here from Koforidua, Ghana, when he was an infant. “My mum is the leader of her church’s gospel choir. My dad had an eclectic palette so would spin something different each weekend, and my brother was into Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Rage Against The Machine. Plus, there would always be high life music playing.”

As teens Owusu (full name Kofi Owusu-Ansah) and his brother (who became known as rapper Citizen Kay) formed the Ansah Brothers and performed gigs locally. “I already had a beard so I was getting into venues I really shouldn’t have,” he recalls fondly. “It was just about having fun and learning the craft of hip hop.”

However outside of music, it was a less inviting environment. As the only black family in their neighbourhood, he faced racism at school and was expected to play the game of fitting in. Now 23, and one of the most exciting new names of 2021, Owusu’s impressive debut album addresses these issues not so much head on as with gleaming, golden fangs. The concept work, entitled Smiling With No Teeth, introduces us to two canine characters, as Owusu explains.

“I had heard of the ‘black dog’ as a euphemism for depression, and scouring my memories I realised I’d been called a black dog as a racial slur as well. So, I found it interesting that this term encompassed both the things I wanted to talk about. As I was writing the songs, they became an analysis for these two personalities. The internal black dog, representing depression, is very seductive and wants to draw you in, like a toxic relationship. And the external black dog, which represents the effects of racism, is more in your face, brutal and blunt.”

The album title is Owusu’s reference to pretending everything’s okay when it’s not, which is also echoed in the sexy sonic palette. “When you listen to the album, so many songs are funky and upbeat, it has this gloss of honey. But once you scrape that away, you get down to the nitty gritty and realise what I’m talking about. This is a representation of how I feel like I’ve had to navigate these topics my whole life. I’ve had to sugar coat things to make other people comfortable.”

The album’s range of sounds and vocal styles is simply dazzling. Tracks such as ‘Waiting on Ya’ and ‘Centerfold’ are dripping in Prince meets Andre 3000 soulfulness, Owusu’s laconic delivery seemingly wooing a lover but actually slipping into the abyss. Conversely ‘The Other Black Dog’ and ‘Whip Cracker’ come out fast and fighting with a punk attitude and ‘Drown’ has the air of a 1980s synth-rock anthem. And on current single ‘Gold Chains’ his faultless lyrical flow belies the fact he’s admitting to the self-inflicted wounds he tolerates in order to dance with his demons. At once the stray and the aggressor, the star and the sinner, the friend and the foe, Owusu takes us on an intoxicating journey.

This energy and breadth stems in part from the way the album was recorded – in less than a week, with a band he only met on the first day in the studio. “I told Andrew [Klippel, Ourness label founder and producer) to throw me in at the deep end so we got into this small room and jammed for six days, 10 hours a day. The band would play, I’d guide the mood and create the melodies and choruses on the spot, which was astounding for me.”

The concept extends to the project’s creative direction and stage show, too. On the cover, Owusu’s face is wrapped in bandages, holding his fractured psyche together, while gilded rings and grillz maintain the superficiality of a showman’s swagger. This guise, among others, has come on tour, where he is joined by The Goons - his crew of Canberra friends who have become a cross-disciplinary creative collective - to build a many-costumed, high octane, no-holes barred live experience. “It’s choreographed chaos! We have everything mapped out to create this sonic narrative arch,” he says. “I hold live performance very highly in my field of craft. I want to transform it into something akin to theatre and on this tour, we have done that. It’s pretty hectic, in the very best way.”

Owusu has certainly put in the work to fine tune his art. After the Ansah Brothers, he soon found his voice as a solo artist. He was a Triple J Unearthed High finalist - a competition championing local alternative musicians – and then released his debut Cardrive EP in 2017, followed in 2019 by the successful singles ‘WUTD’ and ‘Good Times’. He’s received two ARIA Awards nomination, won ACT Live Voice of the Year at the NLMAs, supported Dead Prez and been recognised by Sir Elton John. Now standing alongside his contemporaries at home (he name-checks Tkay Maidza, Kwame and Sampa The Great as talent he admires), it’s Smiling With No Teeth that has served to introduce him to an international audience.

“It’s turned a lot of heads. People think I’ve come out of nowhere,” he reflects. “My intention was to make a piece that fully expressed myself so the fact that it’s been rated so highly is fantastic.” His soaring social media following is testament to that. Are his DMs blowing up? “Yes. I’ve got heart-warming messages about how the album has helped people in times of need. And there’s even people who have got Genesis Owusu tattoos, which is really cool. I’ve now got a genuine fan base who really connect with the music and what I’m trying to say.”

Next month sees the release of new single ‘Same Thing’ and deluxe album Missing Molars including more material from the original recording sessions. And looking forward, he’s got a US tour planned for 2022. “As soon as Covid stops being an asshole, it’s world domination!” His growing status aside though, talking to Owusu, in his bedroom, often showing off the warmest of broad smiles (no grillz covering his pearly whites today), it’s his genuine passion for what he does that shines through above all else. “First and foremost, it’s about finding myself and expanding the world’s views of the black identity and all the great avenues that comes from that. Everything else is a bonus.”

LISTEN TO GENESIS OWUSU’S EXCLUSIVE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FOR NATAAL:

Smiling With No Teeth is out now on Ourness. Find it here.

Photography Atong Atem
Words Helen Jennings

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Published on 26/05/2021