Up-and-coming genre-defying musician Genesis Owusu shared video for his new song “Same Thing.” The song is an outtake from the sessions for his critically-acclaimed debut album Smiling with No Teeth.
“It’s still the same thing you want from me/It’s still the same thing I fear to see.” Owusu opens the song with the hook, before launching into a rap verse over a slapped funk bassline, guitar fills, synth chords and mellow backing vocals. The lyrics hint at being afraid to enter a relationship in spite of the promise of new happy memories. He raps, “Smile in the teeth but my trusting is skewed/PTSD from my soul black and blue/Dance on the line linking love and a bruise/And my heart terrified when I’m thinking of you.”
In the video for the track, Owusu walks and dances in place while wearing various outfits including muscle-suits, fatsuits, dress shirts and no shirt. The green-screen backdrop changes colors as well, and several masked dancers sway around him. The video was directed by Byron Spencer.
“When the band and I were creating Smiling with No Teeth, we essentially made 60 hours of music for the album in six days,” Owusu explained in a statement. “‘Same Thing’ was one of the tracks born from the seemingly limitless SWNT sessions. The track is still in the realm of the album’s themes of mental health (more specifically, the crazy shit the mind makes up), so the video follows suit with a psychedelic barrage of both colourful and claustrophobic imagery.”
Smiling with No Teeth came out on March 5 via House Anxiety. Six of the songs from the album were released as singles, including “Don’t Need You,” “Gold Chains” and “Drown,” featuring Kirin J. Callinan. It’s an eclectic album, but largely sticks within the scope of soul, rap and funk, with elements of other genres mixed in.
Owusu is a Ghanaian-Australian musician, and has some Australian concerts planned for this year. He also has a US tour planned for 2022, starting at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, CA on January 13, 2022 and wrapping up at Antone’s Nightclub in Austin, TX on January 30, 2022.
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