Cockroaches are not the most popular animals. They crawl through kitchens, avoid light and can transmit diseases. The Ghanaian-Australian rapper and singer Genesis Owusu nevertheless chose the insect as a metaphor to express his state of fear and helplessness. The cockroach doesn’t want to be stepped on and crawls away – that’s exactly how Owusu sees people fleeing the challenges of our time.
The music, which is characterized by melodic bass lines, is not quite as dark: whether uncompromisingly galloping forward like on “Leaving The Light” or groovy-sexy like on “See Ya There”, the deep tones form the foundation of the mix of punk, rap and jazz and Soul. Owusu also always stays on the move, switching between aggressive rap and sensual falsetto singing. The rap punk part is reminiscent of a slightly less brash Slowthai and, apart from the brutal “Leaving The Light”, is the weaker part of the album.
The highlights lie elsewhere: in the smooth funk of “That’s Life (A Swamp)” or in the 80s alternative rap hybrid “The Roach”. And in the lyrics, which are characterized by literary references from Kafka (“Feeling like Gregor Samsa / A bug in the cog of a grey-walled cancer”) to Beckett (“I can wait here for Godot or pick my legs up and move”). Cockroaches are difficult to kill – and Genesis Owusu doesn’t give up easily either.
Author: Elias Pietsch