‘I was so pissed off’: Why this Aussie musician was furious at Kendrick Lamar

He once earned a co-sign from Barack Obama himself but with his typically eclectic and politically charged new album Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge, it seems like the wider world has finally caught up with Genesis Owusu.

The ARIA winner’s third album has earned stellar write-ups in The New York Times, Pitchfork and The Guardian and a rave review from the internet’s favourite music critic Anthony Fantano. “We love to see it,” says the 28-year-old Ghanaian-Australian musician, real name Kofi Owusu-Ansah.

He’s speaking over Zoom from his family’s home in Canberra, where he’s enjoying a brief weekend break before jetting off to Europe for shows in Paris and London. “They can’t take Canberra out of the boy,” he says, laughing about his revitalising respite back home. “The boy’s globetrotting but my heart is always here.”

1. Worst habit?Procrastination. I’m a big chiller. I love taking it easy, taking it slow. Even right now, I should be packing, but I’ve got a whole list of little boring admin stuff that I’ll be procrastinating on until the last minute. I hate a deadline, but deadlines definitely spark the motivation I need to get things done – except when it comes to my albums. My art’s the only thing where I’m like, “Okay, let’s get this out NOW.”

2. Greatest fear?Stagnation and mediocrity. Not only for myself but just in general. It’s the fear of me not moving forward, people around me not moving forward, society as a whole not moving forward. A lack of curiosity scares me. The unwillingness to live out the greatness that you could be living out scares me.

It’s why my music touches on so many different sounds and genres. When I was young I gave myself the mission to be a boundary-breaker, to constantly try and tread new ground, so if I stop doing that I feel like I’ve betrayed myself.

3. The line that has stayed with you?“Think globally, act locally.” I’m not sure who said it first, but I heard it from Fred Hampton from the Black Panthers. It feels more pertinent every day.

Being able to see so much of the world and being bombarded by information, sometimes you feel powerless with all these crazy things that are happening. But all you can do is what you can do, and often that starts in your backyard and in your community. If everyone does what they can, then hopefully we make steps to a positive change.

4. Biggest regret?When I was in Year 11 in 2014, I had a friend who was a bit quirky and he was like, “Man, there’s this thing called Bitcoin and we can buy stuff on the black market with it.” I was like, “Hell no, bro, keep me out of it.” Lo an