The latest member to join Atlanta’s Awful Records is Canadian/Tamil/Swedish rapper/singer/producer/creative Tommy Genesis. The 16th artist to sign up to the ever-growing experimental label after meeting Father and Keith Charles Spacebar online a few years back, she’s since featured on Father’s single Vamp and Spacebar’s Ask if You Really Want To Know. Her first official Awful release, World Vision, won our hearts for its truly wild style informed, Tommy says, by pussy and darkness. Who are we to disagree? We get the digital downlow from the Awful affiliate…
2 things that Tommy would like to change about the world
1. “On a spiritual tip human, ‘unconsciousness’ is something I’d like to see transformed on a global level. We’re all caught up in things that don’t matter; money, cars, clothes, other people’s business… If we could elevate our consciousness and maintain focus on beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace, the world would be a better place for us all.”
2. “Politically, we got a lot of issues all over the world but in North America I’d like to see some police reform. It’s always been a problem, along with systematic racism, but now it’s staring us right in the eye and if something doesn’t change soon things are gonna get ugly.”
4 of Tommy’s favorite Awful releases…”There’s so much to choose from but right now I’m fucking with…”
1 KCSB: Different
2. Father: Cheap Thrills
3. Abra: Roses
4 Lui Diamonds Ft. Leaf: Deep Twerk
6 People, places and things who have had a direct Influence on Tommy’s artistry…
1. Tommy Wright III “Tommy Wright III is an artist that changed my perspective on rap. He’s been rapping forever and what people might not know is that he writes for a lot of well-known artists on the side too… His track Still Pimpin with Princess Loko is one of the reasons I started rapping.”
2. Angelina Jolie “As a little girl I used to watch Gia on replay. It changed everything. I became sexually aware of girls, and I realised my future was now sexualised. It’s not really about who she is as a person, but just who she was in Gia, and what she did to me…”
3. Kleenex/LiLiPUT “Kleenex/LiLiPUT is an all girl Scandinavian punk band, they’re really just pop candy punk girls who don’t give a fuck. If you listened to Hole, Sonic Youth or The Slits as a kid, then you might like them too. Try their track Nice out, I played it for my mom and she actually smiled.”
4. Santiago Sierra “Sierra is one of those artists you learn about and it just fucks with your notion of making things and Conceptual Art. He critiques Capitalism by imitating it. His work embodies the question ‘Is this Art?’ or ‘What is Art?’ In my opinion it proves that art is an idea that is executed with social awareness, political awareness, awareness of aesthetics, site specificity and self reflexivity. For me, music is also art, and I often apply the same ideologies.”
5. Speaker Knockerz “It makes me sad he died so young. He was ahead of his time and his track Lonely is one of my favorite songs. RIP <3.”
6. Genesis P-Orridge “Genesis’ band Psychic TV influenced me as a kid when I was just starting to experiment with music. Then there was her Pandrogeny Project, where she and her partner Lady Jaye underwent a bunch of surgical procedures to look more and more like each other, eventually identifying themselves as a single “Pandrogynous” person. This is an extreme example of gender neutrality that I was exposed to early on… Since then Gender Identity in art and rap is something I always like to play with. Sometimes I rap with a dick, other times I rap with a pussy.”
8 things we should know about Tommy Genesis
1. My best friend growing up was a witch, and my current best friend is a witch. Witches like me.
2. If I was American, I’d vote for Bernie Sanders.
3 I have a puppy named Tupac and I love him more than most humans that I love.
4 I just dropped the video for Hair Like Water… featuring my girl Abra.
5 I’m half Tamil and half Swedish. All my sisters have green/blue eyes.
6 I travelled a lot as a kid. I have a soft spot for Asia and want to move to Indonesia one day.
7 I’ve got a poetry blog somewhere on the Internet that I’ve lost the password for. It has over 2000 entries; I hope nobody ever finds it.
8 My first album World Vision was part 1 of a trilogy. World Vision 2 is coming soon…
World Vision is available on BandcampFollow Tommy on Soundcloud and Twitter
Credits
Text Hattie Collins
Photography Briggs Ogloff
Styling Tianna Franks