NME’s latest star of The Cover, Genesis Owusu, has shared a playlist exclusively to accompany the story’s launch – listen to it below.
The Ghanaian-Australian artist is on this week’s (August 14) edition of The Cover, a renewal of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Genesis Owusu’s profile here, written by Josh Martin and featuring photography by Bailey Howard.
Genesis Owusu’s stunning second album ‘Struggler’, out this Friday, centres on a character called ‘the Roach’, who’s feverishly contemplating existence and purpose as it runs a never-ending race. As he tells NME, “the actual story [of the album] is going on in the character’s head. And essentially, all they’re really doing is just trying to survive.”
Prime yourself for ‘Struggler’ with Genesis Owusu’s exclusive playlist for The Cover: ‘Roach Music’, which features the likes of Prince, Kendrick Lamar, Yves Tumour, Jockstrap and Amyl and the Sniffers. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
‘Struggler’ is a meditation on the crushing realities of modern life. Looming over the Roach in Owusu’s narrative is a god figure that amalgamates the deadly forces of disease, disaster, and poverty. “This world just seems more and more confusing and chaotic as things go by,” he says. “It feels like life closes in around you sometimes, especially when you’re at your lowest. That’s a big part of the character as well – the struggle of being at your lowest but still having to fight to the next day.”
Genesis Owusu will take the ‘Struggler’ show on the road with tours of the US, EU/UK and Australia from October onwards. He tells NME of his dramatic, cathartic live show: “When people see me [live] for the first time it’s like, ‘What the fuck? What the fuck? OK, that’s kind of cool. Oh shit! I like this one’. I enjoy that rollercoaster of emotion.”