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Brown Supremacy

by Immy Owusu

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about

Brown Supremacy is the second single from Surf Coast multi instrumentalist Immy Owusu and is built on samples of legendary Zamrock band Amanaz’s classic “Easy Street” (1975). Immy and Amanaz exist decades and continents apart but a shared love of Hendrix-esque fuzz guitars and deep connection to West African tradition makes it a natural combination.

Immanuel Kwabena Dreessens-Owusu grew up in two worlds: the sea bleached lifestyle of Torquay and the Surf Coast with its rock n roll soundtrack, and the musical heritage of his Ghanaian / Dutch family. Immy’s father Kojo is one of Australia’s best regarded West African musicians and his grandfather Koo Nimo is foundational figure of Ghanaian Highlife. On Brown Supremacy, Immy takes Amanzaz loops, and weaves his own songwriting over the top, keeping the iconic riff and the “get together, stay together” hook from the original. He adds chunky kicks and snares, fuzz atmospherics, and ‘Castles Made Of Sand’ reverse delay guitar.

Zamrock was a 1970s movement of Zambian artists who took psychedelic rock and reframed it in an African context. Too far ahead of their time, artists like Amanaz didn’t achieve global recognition until successful reissues and compilations in the 21st century. Now their music has found kindred spirits all the way to Bells Beach where Immy has flipped it into ‘a song dedicated to every kid that grew up in a rural town that felt like they didn’t belong’.

Immy says, ‘When I first moved to Torquay, for some kids I was the first ‘black’ person they had ever seen before, and their first experience from any other culture that wasn’t their own. In high school I pushed away from people who looked like me in an attempt to fit into the establishment. How ‘black’ I felt was compounded by how ‘white’ I was treated by my Ghanaian family (in Africa). For me this song is my story about finding a place to belong.’

lyrics

(Get together stay together) That’s the whole way we gotta live
(Get together stay together) A whole less take more give
(Get together stay together) Ah yeah
(Get together stay together, that’s the only way to live)

In less than half a week I will be a quarter century old
Never realised what I’ve never been told
Twenty-Five years of bleach and charcoal
Twenty-Five years of making this home

Walking around on Gilbert St
Balafon banging on making some coin
Kiddies look at me like the new oddity
Parents get so embarrassed they throw me a fifty

I’m so sorry, Billy’s never really seen (brown)
Never seen you of you guys around
Dreadlocks, tattoos and brown (brown)
Well I smile and I just say

(Get together stay together) Oh get together, stay together
(Get together stay together) Get to know me a little better honey
(Get together stay together) White, Black, Red, Yellow...
Everyone’s a shade of brown

Prod at my skin, pull at my hair
Try to relax like I really don’t care (I’m gonna stay, I’m gonna stay)
Back in highschool, kept the low profile
Show your weakness then you’re gonna go down

I didn’t wanna end up like the Sudanese kid all doused in white flower
Thank God I’m only brown, yeah I prayed to White Jesus I’m brown
But I really should’ve said something like I dunno...

(Get together stay together) Oh get together, stick together
(Get together stay together) Get together stay together, uh huh
(Get together stay together, that’s the only way to live)

Now I go back to my quote, unquote home
To visit my, quote unquote people,
They turn around, look at me up and down and say
“Imma Wo Ye Obruni Pete”
You’re a foreign vulture from over the horizon
And across the sea

How can I take you to go worship White Jesus looking like that, with me?
Tattoos and dreadlocks that go way (brown)
Noserings and AC/DC t-shirts (brown)
Sleep in on Sundays (brown)
Memorise messages not verses (brown)
Like everyone a shade of brown.

Getting back to my place (Get together, stay together)
Feeling groovy, feeling funky (Uh huh, yeah)
Get together, stay together
Brown
Brown
Brown

credits

released March 11, 2022

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Immy Owusu Torquay, Australia

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