Spectreview: Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth

Released: March 5, 2021

(Hip-Hop/Rap)
(Neo-Soul)
(Funk)
(Singer-Songwriter)

-AQUA-

For a guide to the review color rating system, click here.

Canberra wunderkind Genesis Owusu, born Kofi Owusu-Ansah, doesn’t fit the exact description of an outsider – his brother is ARIA-nominated rapper Citizen Kay and his 2017 introductory single was produced by members of, at this point, the patron band of Melbourne jazz – but his debut album could just as well be outsider art. Operating free of genre can easily come off like a gimmick or a crippling indulgence, but Smiling With No Teeth pulls it off easily through a stunning cohesiveness that feels totally organic. Each of its fifteen tracks feels like different parts of the same unique body; save perhaps for borderless exercises like Stankonia or Channel Orange, not much feels quite like it.

This should be excellent news for people who prefer their music keeps them guessing. Where “The Other Black Dog” spits and bounces, “Waitin’ On You” lays down sultry R&B a la Damon Albarn. As the strutting “Don’t Need You” throws up a ridiculously-fun middle finger, so does “I Don’t See Colour” and “Whip Cracker!” turn that diss energy into deadly-serious clapbacks to the racist white folk (matched in kind by atonal grooves and ultra-frizzy funk, respectively). “Black Dogs!” is low-end punk with its canines sharpened; “A Song About Fishing’s” gentle swing is, decidedly, not. You might find one song here that hits your pleasure centers to a T, or you might find several, but there’s something for everyone here and it’s all connected by Owusu-Ansah’s irrepressible personality and the instrumental talents that supports it.

An interview with NME reveals that the music on Smiling With No Teeth bubbled up from formless jam sessions inspired by the music of disparate artists – Prince, Death Grips and Tom Tom Club among them – and were then excerpted, composed and edited into full songs. It’s an approach that, worst case scenario, could result in a messy collection of loose lazy tracks. Instead it demonstrates the strength of Owusu-Ansah’s vision, and how his position as the crux of the band keeps these experiments related. 

It’s not just his voice, dynamically-varied as it is. The content of his words – littered with anfractuous discussions about depression, abuse and systemic racism – also do the heavy work in providing some thematic continuity.  Some of his ideas have solid inspirations; “Waitin’ For You” feels like an offspring of Kendrick’s “For Sale? (Interlude),” while “Easy’s” commentary on indigenous strife mirrors the interpersonal trainwrecks on Dizzee Rascal’s Boy On Da Corner. Others are carried primarily by the breadth of his range, whether it’s a boisterous growl on “Don’t Need You,” a smooth croon on “Gold Chains,” an elastic rap on “The Other Black Dog” or all three on closing track “Bye Bye.” It’s all a bit soured by a diaphanous blanket of misogyny covering a handful of these tracks (too many of these metaphorical antagonists are women for no reason, and Kirin L. Callinan’s feature on “Drown” doesn’t help) but that doesn’t erase Owusu-Ansah’s realized ambitions.

As a debut record, Smiling With No Teeth absolutely kills with its strong sense of identity and impressive variety of successfully-executed styles. There’s no doubt that he knows not only what he wants to talk about but how to express it without entering cliche. At twenty-two years of age, that’s simply remarkable.

Recommended for chasing cars.