Genesis Owusu is an exponentially rising talent, and has been keeping the limelight burning after releasing his critically lauded debut album Smiling With No Teeth this spring via House Anxiety / Ourness. The record received a landslide of praise across the board, most championing Owusu’s profound artistic evolution and soul-bearing diversity. The Ghanian-Australian lyricist also recently won the prestigious ARIA Music Awards for winning Album of the Year (the first hip hop album to win in this category), Best Hip Hop Release and more, and performed an explosive medley of his biggest songs (watch here); and Triple J’s Australian Album of the Year and Video of the Year (“The Other Black Dog”). With his enigmatic stage presence and soul-bearing vocal adaptability he next set to take the U.S. by storm, kicking off his first ever U.S. tour this January. See tour dates here and find tickets at https://www.genesisowusu.com/tour. 

Today, Owusu has also shared the visual for his new track “Waitin’ On Ya (Remix),” directed by Riley Blakeway — the director behind Owusu’s award-winning video for “The Other Black Dog.” Originally commissioned as part of a global Google ad campaign, the track features Jono Ma, the artist behind trailblazing Australian psychedelic-dance band Jagwar Ma. Jono lends his experimental electronic sound palette to his fellow Aussie innovator to mutate the original arrangement, and the radiant combination of drum and bass rhythmic elements alongside the smooth lyrical flows of Owusu makes this reinterpretation truly special.

On Smiling with No Teeth, Owusu presents a soul-bearing narrative and full-length release that is impossible to ignore. It intuitively picks apart and reassembles themes of mental health, resilience and race, to become a culmination of ideas and defining chapter in Owusu’s acclaimed discography, that begs for listening over and over.  The 15-track LP seamlessly defies genre boundaries while delineating the nuanced complexities of mental health, as well as Owusu’s experience of living as a black man in a white society — he unpicks concepts of race, identity and belonging, entwining his own experience immigrating to Canberra from Ghana as a child. Owusu illustrates each disclosure from within his mind under a tessellation of soundscapes, moving through future-funk, rap and OG hip-hop to guitar-laden odysseys veering from punk and indie-rock to tinges of wistful folk. Smiling With No Teeth, at its heart, remains dedicated to Owusu’s core audience, those who live outside of the box, out of choice or in a decided lack of belonging.