It’s an old song long forgotten, but the opening line of “Stop It, You’re Killing Me” by Irish punk metal band Therapy? still rings very true:
“The world is fucked/And so am I”
Such is it’s longevity that it could well be an alternate title for Australian raper Genesis Owusu’s third album, one on which he points an unflinching gaze towards both fraying mental health alongside modern day villains and the evil that they do, using opener Pirate Radio to eviscerate the likes of Elon Musk, Donald Trump and Kanye West.
Were Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge just a series of polemical rap diatribes it might’ve have fallen into all the holes that approach often craters in, but instead there’s an audacious grab bag of different musical vehicles to be embraced, from industrial punk, neo-soul, drum n’ bass and even fizzy ambience.
Surprises are by extension the norm here, but the highlights – BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, LIFE KEEPS GOING AND BIG DOG – are their own idiosyncratic chapters of an audiobook that’s hard to resist. The world is still fucked. But Redstar Wu & The Worldwide Scourge gives us something to listen to in the ashes.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 