Genesis Owusu

One Liner: Ghana/Aussie rapper/singer with a little funky flair

Wikipedia Genre:  Hip hop, funk, punk rock
Home: Canberra, Australia

Poster Position: 13
Weekend One Only.  Friday.

Thoughts:  I am actually really interested to research what is going on with this guy.  His music is an odd pastiche of sounds - sorta rap, sorta funk, sorta pop punk, sorta electronic, sorta R&B.

Real name is Kofi Owusu-Ansah, born in 2998 in Ghana, but then moved to Canberra, Australia.  I got to go to Australia when I was eight, and pretty much it was an amazing trip that I'll never forget, and yet all I really remember are the dumb things that a little kids would remember.  Like that I got a chocolate bar that one time, or that when we drove to Canberra to go to a sheep farm and watch them get sheared, we got stuck behind a huge herd of sheep whose butts were super crusty with brown funk.  These things are deeply important to eight year old boys.  Butt funk.

His brother is also a rapper - goes by Citizen Kay.  They moved to Down Under in 2000.  Apparently when at school, his older brother told people that his younger brother's name was Kofi, which they thought was Coffee, and the kids wouldn't believe it.  So he just came up with Genesis on the spot and it stuck.  And he's been damn successful back home - At the 2021 ARIA Music Awards he won four trophies for Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop Release, Best Independent Release, and Best Cover Art.  I think that the thing that makes him so distinct is that none of these tracks sound like they should be rap songs.  They're live band tunes with kind of jazzy, funky tracks under them - no 808s or traditional samples.

2017 EP named Cardrive, then a bunch of singles before 2021's Smiling with No Teeth (and a subsequent deluxe version of that same thing called Missing Molars).  Many of the singles are remixes with electronica people re-making his songs.  The top track is a 2019 single called "Good Times," with 7.3 million streams.

Like I said - what is that song?  Some rap, a funky bassline, some R&B singing.  Kinda all over the place.  I don't know who Kirin J. Callinan is, but he appears on one track, and I could have sworn it was Elton John.  "Don't Need You" is the top track from his album with just over 5 million streams.

He's heavy into those bandages and the gold teeth.  Seems to really like that look.  And again, kind of rap at the start, but then the chorus is just him singing.  Catchy tune - kinda bangs.

I could be talked into trying this guy out.