Interview with Serengeti, mostly about his Dennehy album. Link
One of the rapper’s most recent albums, Dennehy, finds him playing the roles of three city characters, complete with varied accents and storylines. Perhaps the most interesting of the group is Kenny, a die-hard Chicago guy whose main loves are da Bears, auto shows, O’Doul’s and his girl, Jueles.
“About five years ago, I was working for Budweiser delivering beer, so I was always in these different neighborhoods in Chicago, meeting all these different people,” recalls Serengeti about the inspiration for Kenny. “And then one day, three years ago, I was watching the Little League World Series. Right before they show a kid, they ask, like, ‘who’s your favorite actor?,’ ‘what’s your favorite movie?,’ yadda yadda. So all of a sudden I was like, man, what if someone’s favorite actor was [Brian] Dennehy? And everything just sorta steamrolled from there.”
If this doesn’t sound like the typical subject matter for a hip-hop album, that’s kind of the point. “Hip-hop is so depressing to me,” says Serengeti. “It just doesn’t bring any new thoughts to the table, it’s the same redundant ideas. It’s like, it’s not cool to kill people, but let’s rap about killing people as cool. Even in underground rap, it’s all just homaging old shit, there’s never any new thoughts. Why do I want to hear a rap song about rap, or hear a song about how you flip styles? It’s the same voice played a thousand times.”
previously:
Serengeti – I don’t know (video)
AUDIOCAST NO. 091106
Serengeti’s New Album – Dennehy
