Tag: Isaac Brown

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck “LIFE KEEPS GOING”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu will be releasing his highly-anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE through OURNESS on May 15, 2026.

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE reportedly sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity.

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate.

“The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

“LIFE KEEPS GOING,” the album’s latest single is a gritty, club friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, drum ‘n’ bass-like production featuring rapid-fire skittering beats, thumping, organ rattling low end and atmospheric synths. The track’s production evokes seemingly unstoppable force and movement and over the breakneck instrumentation, Owusu muses on time and the motions of life, finding strength and inspiration in their relentless, disobedient nature. Birth, love, war, heartache, despair, time cycling forward and death will continue well after all of us — and in turn, all of this — will be gone.

Directed by Isaac Brown, the frenetic accompanying video for “LIFE KEEPS GOING” was shot in Accra‘s massive Black Star Square, which was built for their independence and is steeped in national unity. We see Owusu by himself dancing and rocking out in the square and in a gorgeous, dream-like sequence on the beach at sunset. And although Owusu is a larger-than-life figure, his smallness in the face of such immense settings, the sea rolling in and out, the sky above are all serve as reminders of the song’s central themes — and why we need more unity in our world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck “STAMPEDE”

Last year, the acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released two singles “PIRATE RADIO,” and “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE,” the first bit of new material since the release of 2023’s acclaimed STRUGGLER.

The JOVM mainstay’s first single of 2026, “STAMPEDE” is anchored around the acclaimed Ghanian-Australian artist’s punchy punk rock-meets-hip-hop delivery and a breakneck production featuring menacing, reverb-drenched synth subs, skittering and relentless military-like motorik pulse. The song conveys the desperate urgency of our moment while being a rallying cry to prioritize community and unity as a way out of our techno-feudalist/Christo-fascist hellscape.

“Left side to the right side, front side to the back,” he says in his latest offering, “we’re all in this together. And there’s a real problem. There are people who have expansive amounts of money, who are intentionally acting to separate us so they can keep getting richer at the expense of general human wellbeing. We’re all under that same thumb and we need to realise that.”

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Isaac Brown, the accompanying video for “STAMPEDE” was filmed in the streets and surroundings of Accra and turns Owusu’s worlds to life: an army of rebels mobilize on motorcycles and horseback around him.

“This whole project is about humanity and community, not just in Australia where I live, but globally. It felt nourishing to go back to my home country (Ghana) for the first time in 11 years and showcase a bit of the culture there; the youth and the deep subcultures, far beyond the perceptions a lot of people may have of Africa,” says Owusu.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Returns with Punchy “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE”

Acclaimed, multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born, Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu‘s sophomore album 2023’s STRUGGLER was an exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life, our ability to endure and how to get through it all.

The album’s material was deeply inspired by a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side, and questions of life and beauty that he found himself contemplating during readings of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. 

Recorded between the States and Australia, STRUGGLER‘s producers traversed several different musical genres — and includes Jason Evigan, who has worked with RUFUS DU SOL and SZA; Mikey Freedom Hart, who worked on Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are; Sol Was, who worked on Beyoncé’s Renaissance; and Owusu’s long-time collaborators and producers Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.

Earlier this year, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay released “PIRATE RADIO,” the first bit of material since the release of his sophomore album, which I hope means a new album is on the horizon. But in the meantime, Owusu shares the fittingly Halloween-themed “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE.” Anchored around a punchy, hook-driven punk rock-meets-Brit pop arrangement, the acclaimed Aussie’s punchy in-your-face vocal delivers observations on the deeply entrenched thought indoctrination, divisive global conversations and absurd circular logic of our mad, mad, mad world — with song scathingly mocking Christian Nationalists, Donald Trump and his MAGA death cult. The song points out that we’re in a figurative zombie apocalypse, and the lemmings are blindly jumping off the cliff . . .

“For most people, the shaking up of what they consider to be true is too scary and inconvenient. Once you’ve picked your truth, you live by it staunchly despite whatever pesky ‘facts’ and ‘logic’ get in the way,” Genesis Owusu explains. “Pride won’t let you be wrong, fear won’t let you be free, dogma won’t let you be aware. The delusion is more comfortable. But the longer you sit in that delusion, the faster the zombification spreads through your body like a plague; like a scourge. Gotta be brave enough to break from the cult.”

Directed by Issac Brown, the accompanying video for “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE” follows the acclaimed JOVM mainstay desperately trying to escape a collection of Thriller-meets-Internet troll-like zombies — with a fitting spooky season twist.