A Rock and Rap fusion Album By genesis Owusu

To really get Struggler, you need to know a little bit about three big philosophical ideas:

Nihilism —Nihilism says life has no real meaning.

There’s no grand purpose, no hidden plan — we’re just here, and eventually, we’re not.As Alan Watts put it: “Life is nothing but a trip from the maternity ward to the crematorium.”

Think about it: if you had to choose between saving your pet or a random stranger, who would you save? Most would save their pet. And if someone’s outraged — “But a human life is worth more!” — the real question is: why?

If you can’t answer why, why are you following that rule?

Nihilism questions everything we blindly accept — it came from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (and no surprise, he’s German, right? Bro had me contemplating life for days).

Existentialism — You Create Your Own Meaning

Existentialism takes a different angle. Yeah, life doesn’t come with a built-in meaning — but that just means you get to create it.There’s no preset path. No god-written script.

It’s your story to write.

Absurdism — No Meaning, But We Still Want One

Absurdism says:

Life is meaningless, but we desperately want it to mean something.

Camus wrote:

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.”

What he meant was: before asking any other big questions, we have to face the real one — is life even worth living if it has no meaning?

Camus’ answer? Yes.

Even if life is absurd, even if it makes no sense, you live it — with courage, freedom, and rebellion.

There’s no more meaning in death than in life. So why not live?

It’s the same energy behind his Sisyphus metaphor — pushing that boulder up the hill forever, not because it will ever stay up there, but because choosing to push anyway is the meaning.

blah blah Philosophy? isn't this supposed to be a music blog?

Struggler

(I'll talk about the album For real this time)

“I wrote it as a story,” Genesis Owusu tells Apple Music about STRUGGLER. “The album is pretty much: What would this story sound like?”

The Ghanaian-Australian artist (real name Kofi Owusu-Ansah) drops a surreal, chaotic concept album where the main character—the Roach—is just trying to survive in a world that’s burning to the ground. A post-apocalyptic mess, full of constant physical and metaphysical threats. And standing against him? God—not as some classic religious figure, but as a symbol for the huge, uncontrollable forces around us: nature, systems, society, technology. The stuff that was supposed to help us, but somehow ended up trapping us instead.

“The Roach character is a metaphor for us as humans,” Genesis says, “and the God character is a metaphor for these forces we built around us, that slipped out of our control.”

The album kicks off with the Roach leaving the light behind, stepping into a world that’s literally collapsing in flames.

He just wants to Live—clinging to life no matter what—but the Old Man (aka God) has a different plan.

Better run, there’s a God

And He’s coming for me

This is supposed to be it—the end of everything. That’s God’s intention.

And the beat? It matches the madness perfectly. It’s heavy, chaotic—you feel like you’re right there next to the Roach, running for your life, barely holding it together.As the album moves forward, we start to see more of the Roach’s pain—how he feels invisible, unwanted:

Hm, always watched but never seen

Said my skin was never clean

And a Reference to Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. (And don’t worry, I’m not gonna bore you with a whole lecture.)

The quick version: Gregor wakes up one day as a giant bug. His family is horrified, ashamed, and eventually just locks him away until he dies alone.

Afterwards? They’re actually relieved he’s gone. Cold as hell.

The Roach is feeling that same vibe—like something disgusting the world would rather forget.

I’ma waste a life tryna chase an answer

Here, Genesis taps into absurdism—the idea that life feels empty and meaningless, but we keep chasing answers anyway.

If life has no point, why fight so hard to stay alive?

And yet…the Roach keeps running.

The old man wants to take me down by any means

It’s a constant misery. Escape from the inescapable.

This whole thing feels super Sisyphus—pushing the boulder up the hill only for it to roll back down, over and over.

But like Camus said, maybe the Roach chooses to keep going. And maybe that’s enough. Later on, the Roach’s view shifts.

He stares nihilism in the face—the belief that there was never a purpose at all:

We keep searching for purpose

But was there one, babe?

You’re going to hell

I’ll see you there

Maybe this is hell. Maybe he’s already living in it. Still, he refuses to stop moving:

We’ve been running for ya

Despite all the bullshit

He put anvils on my shoulders

Just to stop me from dancing

That last line? It’s huge. its shows the pain, the limitations he is enduring and what he is going through.

On the next track, Tied Up, the Roach hits a moment of acceptance.Yeah, life feels pointless. Yeah, the universe feels like it’s out to get him But he looks inward. He starts trying to find his own meaning. He’s tired of being tied down—he wants to break free.

Dance my way through demons

Mama told me, “Give ’em hell!”

Dancing in the darkness

I’m the boy inside the well

It connects back to that earlier line about anvils trying to stop him from dancing—only now, nothing’s stopping him.

He’s choosing to move, to fight, to live.

At this point, he’s faced with two options: stay in the darkness or keep pushing forward.

And he tells us exactly what he chose.

As Genesis put it:

‘See Ya There’ was like, ‘There’s no meaning—oh fuck

‘Balthazar’ is like, ‘There’s no meaning. Fuck yeah. Maybe there’s no inherent meaning—but maybe that’s freedom. We can create our own.”

By the time we hit Stay Blessed, the Roach isn’t just surviving anymore—he’s transcended. He’s an idea now. A symbol of resilience an example for all the Roaches

Even if he dies, the spirit of the Roach carries on:

If you feel me now, then the filthy crowd

Got a brand new crown comin’ through

Now we fill the ground, if you kill me now

You gon’ deal with Roach number two

After the fourth song, the whole album shifts. The world around him is still hell. Nothing external has changed. But he has. He climbs one mountain just to find an even bigger one—but now he’s stronger.

He’s not just the struggler anymore. He’s a survivor, a Thriv-er, he is a Phoenix.

If you really think about it, Struggler feels like a modern version of Camus’ Sisyphus. In Camus’ story, Sisyphus is stuck pushing a boulder uphill forever, knowing it’s just gonna roll right back down — over and over, no escape. It sounds depressing, but Camus flips it and says, “Nah, he’s free.” Because once Sisyphus accepts that life’s kinda pointless, he owns it. He keeps pushing anyway, and that’s where he finds meaning.

Same thing with the Roach. He’s stuck in this broken, burning world, getting crushed by life and systems he can’t control — but he keeps moving, keeps dancing, keeps surviving. He knows it’s never really going to “get better,” but he chooses to fight anyway. Struggler isn’t about winning. It’s about not letting the world kill your spirit. Just like Sisyphus, the Roach finds power in not giving up.

Musically, STRUGGLER carries all this emotional weight but still sounds fun and fresh. Genesis Owusu kills it—both lyrically and vocally. His choruses are catchy as hell, his voice has so much character, and the production gives real soul to everything the Roach goes through. The backing vocals? Perfectly placed. They add so much texture without ever feeling overwhelming.

There’s a real turning point after the fourth track. Songs like Tied Up or That’s Life sound like you could vibe to them on a drive, windows down. While others like See Ya There let you sit in the darkness and just feel it. The balance between chaos and calm is done so well.

Thanks For reading.