Genesis Owusu’s Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge remains a release-week essential

Genesis Owusu’s Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge is one of the most important alternative releases from the 15 May wave and still feels urgent on 17 May. Owusu has never been easy to box in, and that is exactly why he matters. His music moves through hip-hop, synth-funk, punk energy, indie rock, alt-pop and theatrical performance without treating genre as a rulebook.

This album appears to reflect global instability and personal pressure through a maximal, restless sound world. The project follows Smiling With No Teeth and STRUGGLER, records that already established Owusu as an artist who can turn characters, costumes, grooves and social commentary into something emotionally and physically immediate. Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge sounds like it pushes further into that end-of-the-world dance party feeling: aware of collapse, but unwilling to surrender the body, the voice or the imagination. For an indie/alternative digest, this is exactly the kind of release that should not be lost between genre categories. It is not simply rap, not simply funk, not simply art-pop. It is a performance universe with teeth. On 17 May, it remains one of the weekend’s most alive records. Source: https://pitchfork.com/news/15-new-albums-you-should-listen-to-now-kevin-morby-drake-smerz-and-more