AWAL has announced a renewed and expanded partnership with Ourness record label, inclusive of a global artist services deal for the next Genesis Owusu album. The agreement covers a full range of services including global marketing and promotion, digital and physical distribution, creative, sync licensing, and brand partnerships for Owusu.

"Having worked so successfully with the Ourness team on Genesis Owusu's first set of singles and full-length album, the whole AWAL team is very excited to be working together as part of a new, upscaled and global deal," Ben Godding, Senior Director, Marketing for AWAL in Australia said. "With his debut album proving such a massive success, AWAL couldn't be prouder to collaborate with Ourness to help Genesis Owusu take his next steps towards global domination."

Andrew Klippel, co-founder and Director of Ourness and manager of Owusu, said, "My ambitions for both Ourness as a label and Genesis Owusu are that we continue on our path to creative freedom through independence and agility. The global AWAL family is the perfect partner to assist in achieving those goals. We're thrilled to see the passion that the Australian company showed for Smiling with No Teeth now transpires to a worldwide team for Genesis's second album."

Still reeling from the success of his debut album Smiling With No Teeth, Owusu shared his latest single & video, "GTFO" last month via a global First Play on Australia's triple j station. The single comes accompanied by a music video directed by Rhett Wade-Ferrell aka Uncle Friendly. The clip opens to Owusu kneeling in prayer before a candle-lit shrine as he recites the song's opening lines. After an escaped cockroach breaks his attention, the remainder of the video sees Owusu driven insane as he hunts down the insect, wreaking havoc to the house in the process.

Smiling With No Teeth was released in 2021 to global critical acclaim, resonating with audiences across multiple genres and time zones. The album secured triple j's Album of the Year and 4 ARIA award titles, including Album of the Year, Best Hip Hop Release, Best Independent Release and Best Cover Art, alongside radio support from triple j and BBC Radio, and praise from key tastemaker outlets such as The Needle Drop, NME, Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Australian, ICON and more. Owusu closed out 2021 with a nod from President Barack Obama, who included "Gold Chains" on his 2021 Playlist and kicked off 2022 by making his U.S. late night television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Owusu has spent most of 2022 on the road, completing a 13-date European tour with sold-out stops in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Berlin, as well as performing at Primavera Sound andSplendour in the Grass, creating truly special festival moments for those who were lucky enough to be there. He has scheduled performance slots at a plethora of summer festivals including Lollapalooza, Osheaga Festival, This Ain't No Picnic, Austin City Limits, followed by a string of US shows in support of Khuranghbin. He then returns to Australia, where he will lend support to Tame Impala on their Australian tour throughout October, before additional festival appearances at Spilt Milk, Lost Paradise and Falls Festival.

Pete Giberga, President AWAL US said: "We couldn't be happier to be partnering with Genesis Owusu on this next phase of his accomplished career. We are all in awe of his prolific songwriting and his incredible live show and can't wait to see what happens next."

In late 2021, AWAL became a new division within Sony Music Entertainment's suite of independent artist and label services offerings, enhanced by the technology and network of The Orchard. AWAL continues to sign, develop, and market its own artists.