Smiling With No Teeth, the debut album by Ghanaian-born, Canberra-based singer and rapper Kofi Owusu-Ansah, AKA Genesis Owusu, was the kind of success story that so rarely occurs in Australian music. Recorded in a short burst with a motley crew of musicians (including Touch Sensitive and Kirin J Callinan) and released on an independent label, its blend of jolting post-punk, sleazy funk and raw, emotive hip-hop proved novel and compelling enough to break through to a mainstream audience. It netted Owusu-Ansah an Aria award for album of the year – making him the second person of colour and first rapper to win that title – as well as a high-profile sync in a Google ad and a slot supporting Paramore on their US tour.
The plaudits were notable for a few reasons: it’s rare for any fully independent artist to break through with such speed, and Owusu-Ansah was making music that, while accessible and pop-leaning, sounded decidedly unlike much else in the Australian mainstream. Most of all, it was notable because Owusu-Ansah was rapping about racism not with the kind of fiery polemic usually favoured by white audiences, but from the perspective of someone whose experience of discrimination in Australia had led to profound, deep-seated depression. There was something liverish but unflinching about the way Owusu-Ansah rapped about “the two black dogs”: one representing racism and the other depression.
