Genesis Owusu was one of the big winners at last month’s Arias, where he picked up three awards including album of the year. But that trophy haul wasn’t all he made headlines for. The Canberra-raised musician used his final acceptance speech to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war – making him the only artist to explicitly reference the conflict during the televised ceremony.
The rapper and singer – real name Kofi Owusu-Ansah – has become one of the country’s most exciting acts in recent years with genre-hopping tracks that tackle topics such as racism, discrimination and survival against the odds. He may be inspired by Prince, but Owusu-Ansah actually credits a politically charged Xbox game with making him the artist he is today. Here, he tells us about that noughties artefact, as well as the stories of two other important belongings.
