STRUGGLER

Genesis Owusu

2023

STRUGGLER is inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Transformation. Genesis Owusu imagined himself as a cockroach trying to avoid being stepped on by God. Throughout STRUGGLER, Owusu incorporates elements from other stories steeped in the Bible and existentialism.

It’s a concept album revolving around the tortured life of a cockroach — but Owusu treats this roach’s existence as a sort of epic narrative, the kind that would naturally include a dialogue with the almighty.

The Roach is an unsubtle avatar for the underclass rising up against an omnipotent adversary dubbed God, who, in this case, was less a religious deity than a shadowy stand-in for capitalism and authoritarianism.