Last September, Genesis Owusu road-tested material from his then-untitled third album at three intimate gigs at Sydney Opera House. Performing in the round for adoring fans, he radiated the confidence of an artist sharing music he deeply believes in. What made the new songs so arresting were the contrasts – snarling punk intermingling with neosoul and dexterous hip-hop – all grounded in Kofi Owusu-Ansah’s magnetic charisma. Even then, months before the album’s release, it was clear the next era of the Ghanaian Australian artist would be something special.
Now titled Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, Genesis Owusu’s third album arrives with significant expectation after its predecessors – 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth and 2023’s Struggler – rode waves of acclaim and went on to win the Aria album of the year. Following the dense symbolism of those records, with their vivid imagery of black dogs and the unkillable roach, Genesis Owusu has made clear his latest exists “very much on planet Earth in the 2020s”.
