Genesis Owusu Announces New Album ‘STRUGGLER’ and Tour, Shares New Single

May 18, 2023

Genesis Owusu has announced his second album. It’s called STRUGGLER, and it’s set to arrive on Friday, 18th August via Ourness and AWAL. To coincide with the announcement, Owusu has shared the album’s first single, a feverish synth-punk ripper titled ‘Leaving the Light’. That arrives alongside a video directed by Lisa Reihana.

Owusu has also shared a brief statement about the forthcoming album: “THE STRUGGLER RUNS THROUGH AN ABSURD WORLD WITH NO ‘WHERE’ OR ‘WHY’ AT HAND. JUST AN INSTINCTUAL INNER RHYTHM, YELLING AT THEM TO SURVIVE THE PESTILENCE AND LIGHTING BOLTS COMING FROM ABOVE. A ROACH JUST KEEPS ROACHING.” Watch the video for ‘Leaving the Light’ below, and pre-order STRUGGLER here.

Genesis Owusu – ‘Leaving the Light’

Alongside the album’s announcement, Owusu has also announced an Australian tour with some of his biggest venues to date. That’ll kick off at the Ice Cream Factory in Perth on Friday, 1st December, before dates at Melbourne’s Festival Hall, Canberra’s UC Refectory, Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall, Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion and Adelaide’s Hindley Street Music Hall.

At all shows on Owusu’s Australian tour except for Perth, he’ll be joined by American hip-hop duo EarthGang. The duo released their debut album, Ghetto Gods, back in 2022. They last toured Australia in 2019. See full dates for the tour below – tickets are on sale this Friday, 19th May.

According to a press release, STRUGGLER was inspired by “a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side,” along with questions Owusu found himself contemplating while reading Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It was recorded between the US and Australia, and producers Owusu worked on the album with include Jason Evigan, Mikey Freedom Hart, Sol Was and longtime collaborators Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.

Owusu’s debut album, Smiling with No Teeth, arrived in March 2021 after being previewed with singles like ‘Don’t Need You’, ‘The Other Black Dog’ and ‘Gold Chains’. Owusu won three ARIA Awards for Smiling With No Teeth – Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop Release and Best Independent Release – while Klippel and Hammer won Producer of the Year for their work on the album. Owusu released two standalone singles last year, ‘GTFO’ and ‘Get Inspired’.