About this artist
A self-described “fetish rapper” whose lyrics confront traditional notions of sex and sexuality, Tommy Genesis is a multidisciplinary artist who has embraced music, fashion, and visual art as means of creative expression. Genesis first garnered wider attention with her 2018 debut, Tommy Genesis, which featured a Charli XCX remix of her track “100 Bad.” She continued to develop her provocative, emotionally cinematic style, guesting on tracks with Dakari, Lil West, and JPEGMAFIA before releasing her sophomore album, 2021′s Goldilocks X.
Hailing from Vancouver, Genesis is of Swedish and Tamil heritage. She took piano lessons as a child and wrote her first song at the age of ten. She also showed a keen interest in art, and claims she was creating BDSM-themed paintings while she was still in kindergarten. While attending art school, she studied filmmaking, but she began to chafe under the restrictions of the medium and was eager to try other things. Part of the film program included a course in audio recording and production, and her new skills encouraged her to renew her interest in music. She played with some local punk rock bands before taking a stab at hip-hop with a duo called Moan. Genesis started recording raps accompanied by minimalist but atmospheric production, initially recording in 2013 as part of a project called G3NESIS. In time, some of her work made its way to Father, the founder of the Atlanta-based indie rap label Awful Records. Father invited Genesis to record for Awful, and in July 2015, her debut mixtape, World Vision, was released. Between her provocative lyrics (openly sexual while flirting with dark themes) and bold fashion sense (she favors short plaid skirts, cropped heavy metal T-shirts, and heavy boots), Genesis became one of the most talked-about new artists on the hip-hop underground, and earned mainstream exposure when Calvin Klein used her as a model in their 2016 advertising campaign.
After releasing a pair of indie singles in 2016 (“Art” and “They Cum, They Go”), Genesis struck a deal with Downtown/Interscope Records; her first single for the label, “Empty,” appeared in March 2017, and her second, “Tommy,” dropped the following September. In June 2018, Genesis issued the single “100 Bad,” which a few months later received a remix treatment from Charli XCX. Along with “Tommy” and the previously released “Daddy,” the latter version appeared on her eponymous full-length debut, Tommy Genesis, in November of that year. Over the next year, along with featured spots on tracks by Dakari and Lil West, she released several non-album singles, including “I’m Yours” and “Bricks” with Charli XCX. All of this led up to the release of Genesis’ sophomore full-length, Goldilocks X, which arrived in September 2021 and featured production by Good Times Ahead, the Martinez Brothers, Charlie Heat, and Stelios. ~ Mark Deming