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Seven-time ARIA award winner Genesis Owusu credits the 2000 video game Jet Set Radio Future for shaping his genre-defying musical style and political lyrical themes, drawing parallels between the game's pirate radio and his own fusion of rap, soul, and post-punk.
The first time seven-time ARIA award winner Genesis Owusu heard The Rolling Stones was as a kid playing popular video game Guitar Hero III. The born performer's genre-defying music has cemented him among Australia's most exciting boundary pushers with an explosive collision of rap, post-punk, soul, funk, pop and R&B. "So much of my life and artistry comes from fusion," he says.
"My biggest experience of that … was this video game I played when I was five years old called Jet Set Radio Future. " Released in 2000, the Sega title puts you in control of a gang of rollerblading graffiti artists combating a mega-corporation who rules futuristic Tokyo as a police state. "Freedom of expression is outlawed, and you guys are the last bastion of resistance," Owusu explains.
Hitting play was "like a gust of wind that blew all my hair back". For Owusu and Jet Set Radio Future, "it's all sound-tracked by this pirate radio station hosted by DJ Professor K", introducing him to cult acts like Bis, Bran Van 3000, and Cibo Matto.
"It's super abrasive taught me ugly was also to be appreciated. I think of food: sour and bitter … can be used to create complex emotions and flavours.
"This game is the biggest creative influence in my life. ", which opens with a track titled Pirate Radio that skewers Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the degrading effects of "blue check mania". Elsewhere, he takes aim at the manosphere, bible-bashing politicians and a paranoid, fragmented world growing apathetic to global atrocities in favour of absurdities served up in algorithms.
The political bent sharpens Owusu's lyrics, bolder and more urgent than the metaphors of his first two albums, where black dogs symbolised racism and depression, or an indestructible roach represented resilience.
"My music has been political from the jump," Owusu says. "A lot of my early music, there was still the veil of creative writing, make everything a metaphor and dress it up. "But in this day and age … we don't have time for the dress-ups. This is what it is: I don't want you to be able to hide from it or misunderstand in any way.
"At age two, the artist born Kofi Owusu-Ansah emigrated with his Ghanaian family to Canberra. His home was filled with gospel music, via his choir leader mother, and the eclectic tastes of his father. Each Saturday, "our cleaning day", the chores were soundtracked by recent CD acquisitions. When his older brother, Kojo, began making music, as Citizen Kay, from a makeshift home studio, "everyone assumed I would follow in footsteps", says Owusu.
Turning his focus to short stories and poetry only encouraged his older brother, who was "basically begging me to start rapping because he saw how the poetry would transition". Clicking with one track that came up on shuffle, Owusu Jnr "started writing first verse". At first, Owusu's parents had a "very typical immigrant parent reaction" to their sons pursuing music: "You're supposed to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
It wasn't until TV and festival bookers came knocking, with a pay cheque, that their parents changed their tune. That's when Owusu said "by the way … I'm gonna be a rapper, too", he laughs.
"My dad, to this day, is probably still my biggest fan. "The Ansah Brothers were the only black kids in a "very white school city", says Owusu. "I had two choices at the time. I could be the Eddie Murphy funny-man or the 50 Cent gangster.
Basically, the novelty or the threat.
" Thankfully, he discovered alternatives: The swagger of hit-maker Pharrell Williams; the political hip hop of Lupe Fiasco; the outsider artistry of Outkast's Andre 3000. "I'm in a lineage of black weirdo boundary-breakers, and Prince is one of the godfathers of that family. Whenever Owusu got stuck making his debut album, he'd think: "What would Prince do if he was a rapper from Canberra in the 2020s?
"The resulting record, Smiling With No Teeth, won Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop Release and Best Independent Release at the "I'd never really seen people like me represented in the Australian music landscape," reflects Owusu, likening the accolades to winning a war. "Because so much of my life at that point was battling against the obstacles that came from not being accepted.
It was like 'our community is changing …' "It fulfils the mission I gave to myself at 10 years old to be a lifelong student and fierce boundary breaker.
""A person that continues to strive for new experiences in every avenue. That is who I have to be until I'm in the dirt. "
Genesis Owusu Jet Set Radio Future ARIA Awards Music Gaming
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