Barely three minutes into ‘Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge’ and Genesis Owusu has already pointed his crosshairs at Elon Musk (“a fuckin’ weirdo”), Donald Trump (a “toupee’d totalitarian”) and Kanye West, whose fans – according to opening track ‘Pirate Radio’ – are “fucking up my homeostasis”. As an opening salvo, backed by claustrophobic, juddering beats and clever references to The Prodigy’s ‘Breathe’ (“Psychosemantic, blowin’ out your brain”), it comes out swinging. But all of that barely scratches the surface of the Australian disruptor’s ambitious if slightly chaotic third studio LP.
Where ARIA-winning 2021 debut ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ and its 2023 follow-up ‘Struggler’ cemented Owusu as an artist with one foot in the rap world and one in the rock mosh, ‘Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge’ attempts to dip a toe into literally everything. There are Daft Punk-nodding electronics on ‘Human Again’, and Viagra Boys-esque grubby punk beats on ‘Most Normal American Voter’. ‘4LIFE’ is a warped moment of weirdness, stripped back to one minimal synth and a heavily treated vocal, whereas ‘The Worldwide Scourge’ is a grand theatrical epic that RAYE would likely give the thumbs up.
It’s not just genre that Owusu is taking an all-encompassing approach to either. Think of any modern horror populating the news cycle, and chances are there’ll be a reference to it here: Andrew Tate, Palestine, fraudulent billionaire corporations and politicians playing god. The overwhelm is the point of ‘Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge’. In 2026, the daily feed of insanity and atrocity can feel relentless, and Owusu holds a mirror to this.
Combine the record’s tension-riddled lyrical content with its unpredictable dance through styles and sounds, however, and you have an album that’s almost impossible to pin down. It’s like a concept-heavy compilation record, all made by one man. Though many of these tracks (the Thundercat funk of ‘Hellstar’ or the aforementioned, satisfyingly janky ‘Most Normal American Voter’ in particular) are individually great, it takes at least three listens to even get a vague handle on how Owusu’s third sits together as a whole.
At 15 tracks, ‘Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge’ could do with shaving off some of the back third; neither ‘4LIFE’ nor the repetitive, two-note ‘Runnin Out Of Time’ add much to the mix. But you can’t fault Owusu’s ambition, nor his ability to translate his furies and fears into a response that feels genuinely reactive and urgent. On his third album, he’s made a truly modern version of a protest record.
