get to know lous and the yakuza with “solo (genesis)” mini-doc

It’s mid-April and all over the globe humanity is reckoning with our newfound state of isolation. Humans are a social species so quarantine life in the time of the Coronavirus is a jarring adjustment for many of us. Not being able to see loved ones in person or even the characters we interact with on our daily routines can leave us feeling lonesome; too much time alone with ourselves and our thoughts can be terrifying for those who were once able to lose themselves in a crowd.

But then there are those of us who have learned to find solace in solitude. People whose life experiences have forced them to tap into their inner strength and wrestle with the demons that company can help you ignore — artist Lous and the Yakuza is one such person.

Born Marie Pierra-Kakoma in the Congo in 1996, the eclectic singer-songwriter has lived a nomadic existence. Living in political exile with her parents in Belgium as a small child, moving to a post-genocide Rwanda in the aughts and then going back to Belgium as a teen, hers is an identity forged in flames of adversity and displacement.

Earlier this month, Lous released her latest single, the El Guincho-produced “Solo.” The song is a beautifully intense statement of resilience and defiant pride that speaks to her individual experience as a Black woman in a world that would silence her and as a Congolese person whose homeland’s history is inextricably linked to the genocidal rule of Belgium’s King Leopold II.

Today, AFROPUNK is proud to premiere “Solo (Genesis),” a short film that provides further context, not only for the single but for Lous an artist who is destined to become one of the most important voices affirming her Blackness, Africanness, and womanhood on the world stage. Watch the four-minute documentary and you’ll understand why she says ” . . .It’s better to be solo than with the wrong people.”