Smiling with No Teeth, Genesis Owusu’s debut album, sees the Ghanaian-born, Australia-based rapper dissect the intersections between racism, his self-image, and mental health through a series of experimental sonics and hard-hitting grooves. The album’s conceptual core is imbued with a daring punk ethos, with Owusu traversing rap, pop, funk, spoken word, R&B, and much more.

On the title track, a bouncing jazz number, Owusu interrogates the relationship between two black dogs, as a loose metaphor for racism and mental health. “Society’s stray and the stray’s hound / Caressing and stabbing each other with a technician’s touch,” he raps over a sunny chorus. Elsewhere, “A Song About Fishing” is an airy folk ballad that uses the parable of “casting a net in a fishless lake” as a commentary on endurance. Smiling with No Teeth might be Owusu’s first album, but his boundary-pushing artistry proves that he’s a true force to be reckoned with.

Brazilian rapper Leall releases a stunning debut, Canadian newcomer Bénédicte’s album is a riot of sonic textures, and Visionist performs dancefloor alchemy on A Call To Arms.

BÉNÉDICTE, WHEN IT BINDS

BLU DETIGER, HOW DID WE GET HERE?

EX.SSES, RELIC

GENESIS OWUSU, SMILING WITH NO TEETH

LEALL, ESCULPIDO A MACHADO

MR MITCH, LAZY

VISIONIST, A CALL TO ARMS