Serengeti: 'Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action!)'
(audio8.com) Grade: A
In
which a prolific, unknown Chicago rapper plays every part but one on a loosely
chronological song cycle about a naive young rapper named Scotty, who laps over
into Serengeti himself, and a much
... moreolder white working-class sports fan named
Kenny Dennis, whose passion for Brian Dennehy provides the album its title and
his signature track its chorus: "Favorite actor Dennehy, favorite drink
O'Doul's/Bears, Hawks, Sox, Bulls." (Given Kenny's accent, this rhymes perfect.)
Over soul loops for Kenny and basement beats for Scotty, both rhyme about their
day to day enthusiasms and travails. It's funny, not satirical -- Serengeti
loves these characters. And like Kenny, he also loves Kenny's wife Jueles, whose
occasional background yakking is rendered by Serengeti's friend Larissa
Poluchowicz with what sounds to me like a Polish-American accent, though
internal evidence indicates Jueles is of Mexican descent. Maybe she's both --
since Serengeti is a "noticeably Negro" man born David Cohn, that would compute
fine. And in case you're wondering, "noticeably Negro" is Serengeti's phrase --
the title of a 2006 album worth seeking out. There are others.
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