Genesis Owusu Embraces Outsider Identity

Genesis Owusu’s latest album “Struggler” has him genre shifting while telling a story of a cockroach which represents humanity. This comes after his debut album, “Smiling with No Teeth” explored issues of racism and depression through the characters of two black dogs. Genesis Owusu talks with Emily Fox about moving away from feeling like he can only make music as a form of therapy. He also talks about moving to Australia from Ghana as a young child and growing up in a small white city and feeling like an outsider. He says he’s embraced that outsider identity as an artist.   “That label as an outsider became a badge of honor as I went on in life and I figured out it’s really cool to live on the outskirts of these cultures and be able to take what I want but be able to meld it into my own way and avert people’s expectations. And when I started making art then it became, I get to put all these little twists and turns and all these genre spikes in my music that no one would expect,” Owusu says.  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.