A quick Google search will find that Genesis Yasmine Mohanraj, known by her stage name Tommy Genesis, is a ‘Canadian rapper and model.’ One listen to her latest single, “True Blue,” calls that designation entirely into question.  

Photography Mikey Assanin

Tommy, who has recently collaborated with Marlon Hoffstadt, Nessa Barrett, and Alex Chapman, operates as a curatorial force to be reckoned with. Her sound stretches across fashion and phenotype, demonstrating a remarkable range. Guttural moans ebb into smooth and rhythmic tempos. Her lyricism boasts an honesty so intimate, you almost feel like an imposter peeping through the keyhole, listening in. But you can’t look away, and why should you? 

Courtesy of Tommy Genesis

“True Blue,” the new single off her upcoming album, Genesis, is a marvelously efficient course in the looming reinvention of the genre-bending artist. “‘True Blue’ was one of those songs that came to me like rain or like puke – it just channeled in from an unknown source,” Tommy tells V.  “It’s like a feeling, a download from another realm.” 

Courtesy of Tommy Genesis

At first listen, it’s a song about an ex. At its core, it’s a narrative on the ever-shifting rapport with identity, and the music video, directed by renowned choreographer Parris Goebel, illuminates just that. 

Courtesy of Tommy Genesis

“To me this video tells a deeper story about the missionaries that came to South India converting my family from Hinduism to Christianity, the bisexual little girl who was too queer for church, the visual artist who is prepared to jump off a cliff for the sake of Art. Who am I but who I am, not looking for anyone to understand—just shifting through myself—the real me, Genesis.” 

Take a look at the official music video below.