Serengeti

Almost immediately, Serengeti proves he hasn't read the memo on what rappers are supposed to say about hip-hop.

"All of this rap [stuff] drives me crazy," he says, his voice popping with frustration. "It's so strange to me that there are all of these problems going on, like murder and drug addiction, and that it's celebrated in rap music. It's not trying to solve the problem; it's the prison theme and they keep it going.

"It makes me crazy because I love rap so much," he continues. "I thought it was about fixing problems, and instead it's about gas and oil companies and going to prison and sleek [things]."

A Chicago-based rapper who has been compared to artists ranging from the Streets to Ol' Dirty Bastard, Geti's "Dennehy" was just released on Bonafyde Records. It is his fifth CD and his second this year. In February, after several delays, "Gasoline Rainbows" was released by Day By Day Entertainment, and this fall he hopes to put out "Don't Give Up."

Born David Cohn and raised between two worlds -- one in Olympia Fields, where his father lived, and one at 81st and Paulina, where his mother lived -- he's had experiences most people buying CDs never have, ranging from overt racism to attending communist organizing rallies with his mother.

Race has always been a prevailing issue with Geti, from kids calling him names on the school bus to those who he says are constantly approaching him and asking, "What are you?"

He knows the answer they're looking for. But often he declines. "Sometimes I'll tell them, 'I'm Chinese,' you know, just to mess with them."

Ask him who is and you'll get a totally different answer.

"I'm just a normal guy who likes sports and having a good time, and to eat hot dogs, and to eat meatloaf and green beans, and to go out and play baseball, and to watch boxing."

But Geti isn't ashamed of race nor embarrassed by it.

"I'm definitely a black person and I identify with the struggle and how [messed] up everything is," he says.

With his music, Geti likes to focus on the latter half of that statement, on identifying what is wrong with society and what can be done to change it

"It's all about change. Society is not perfect, and I think your art should lean toward that," he says. "One of my main goals to show that there is more than one voice for black people, there's more than 'the thug voice' and 'the church voice.'"

On "Dennehy," this means exploring issues that go deeper than race, questions of what things are truly valuable in life. One of his character's conclusions: love, friends, bratwurst, chops, the Sox, Bears, Bulls and Hawks.

Told through the voices of three characters -- each stunningly unique and each done by Geti -- he explores the life we are taught to aspire to, the life we are taught to avoid and the life many of us get caught in.

The characters portraying each of these stations are the smooth-voiced Derek, a highly successful, womanizing, drug-dealing, cutthroat; a nameless hipster who struggles to be cool, and Kenny, a Chicago-accented regular Joe whose favorite actor is Brian Dennehy (thus the title of the CD) and whose favorite beverage is O'Doul's.

Geti says the album "poured out" over a two-week span.

"The Kenny character is a character that I'd always been batting around. Derek is another character I came up with and that whole hipster [thing] was just something that came out, too."

Geti also has written a script titled "Bears, Hawks, Chops," that he co-wrote with friend Brian Wilkerson to accompany the CD and which stars the same characters.

Visit www.myspace.com/ serengetiking for more on Serengeti's music.


David Jakubiak is a local free-lance writer.






- Chicago Sun-Times

Possessing an off-the-cuff absurdity that stacks up against that of MF Doom, Serengeti uses his strange Chicago upbringing (Communist activist mother, suburban father) to produce an equally bizarre, moving and witty walk through day-to-day life channeled through the hip-hop culture he knows and loves so well. Named after, of all people, Brian Dennehy, Serengeti's latest melds his blunted and distinct flow with all sorts of unconventional, yet head-noddable beatscapes. Whether musing on the b-movie Critters or talking about his iPod, Serengeti is easily one of the most unique MC's to appear out of any scene in a good number of years. - Fanatic Promotion

Serengeti is a multidimensional artist that utilizes his eclectic versatility to create unconventional, political music deeply rooted in Hip Hop culture. The use of the title Serengeti is an artistic symbol of his conceptions, forged to mirror the dense lakes and jungles of the African landscape from which his name and lineage is derived. The Chicago-born talent makes music to invoke emotion and promote change, citing racial disharmony, political ostracism and personal conflict as inspiration.

Serengeti’s atypical childhood involved partaking in public protests at the tender age of five, under the tutelage of his politically active mother. Young Serengeti was often shuttled between his mother’s impoverished urban community and his father’s suburban paradise, leading him to uncover two contrasting worlds and the racial, economic and political ties that separated them. Over time, Serengeti learned to embrace his cultural diversity and celebrate its varying influences through the universal language of music. As a result, rock instruments have been merged with Hip Hop elements, creating a seamless sound drenched in passion and articulate rebellion.

Performing with unbridled energy, Serengeti feels compelled to create. Aiming to exhibit the unique intellect and preeminent talent of the oppressed, he sees himself as more than an artist. He is the physical embodiment of a misunderstood generation struggling for a voice. With over a dozen unreleased albums under his belt, Serengeti is fully confident that being under the Day By Day wing will allow his message to soar toward the masses, uplifting and mobilizing marginalized people one by one. - Day By Day Artists

Artist: Serengeti
Album: Gasoline Rainbows
Label: Day By Day Entertainment
Released: October 18, 2005
Genre: Hip Hop


Five years in the making, Gasoline Rainbows is a metaphor for an apparently-blissful life, but one that is in reality dirty and ugly. This metaphor was inspired by a reference from the novel Catcher in the Rye, and one that Serengeti lived during his college years, the so-called best years of his life.
Bored, depressed, and disillusioned, Serengeti drowned himself in liquor and in music for four years while recording Gasoline Rainbows. Miserable days spent on a Budweiser delivery truck turned into nights of emotional release in the studio. He worked with a number of musicians, including Joe Daniels, former drummer for rock group Local H, to create the rock-influenced hip hop album, for which Serengeti created all of the melodies on a guitar or in his head. Not satisfied with the familiar rap-over-rock track, he has assembled complete melodic songs where rhyming is the chosen form of verbal expression.

Gasoline Rainbows was written all over the world: from Paris to Prague, Berlin to Stockholm, Copenhagen to Malmo, and Tokyo to Chicago; on trains, buses, beer trucks, beaches; in bars, trolleys, airports, houses, balconies, courtyards, cars, trees and parks. The physical collection of these rhymes would be a collage of torn loose leaf paper, bar napkins, scraps from under car seats, and paper plates, scrawled with the urgent illegibilisms of an emcee who can't stop writing. Carefully and thoughtfully crafted, the album exudes honesty and genius, a cathartic release from his curse. Aiming to exhibit the unique intellect and preeminent talent of the oppressed, he sees himself as more than an artist. He is the physical embodiment of a misunderstood generation struggling for a voice. - Day by Day Entertainment

Serengeti is one of the most peculiar MCs to ever call Chicago home. But on Gasoline Rainbows, he proves he’s also one of the city’s most creative. Whether he’s contemplating the choices he’s made with a straightforward flow (”All Along”) or playfully crooning with a female vocalist about what he wants out of life (”Borderline”), this well-traveled MC shares something about himself in a different style on every track. Geti makes his own rules with his hip-hop, and for the most part, he succeeds in doing so. ([13] www.daybydayent.com/artists/serengeti.shtml)
– Max Herman - Illinois Entertainer

Serengeti is simply the rawest, funniest hip-hop artist you'll hear. You just can't burn out on his beats, vocal timbre and off the cuff lyrics. - CD Baby

Serengeti brings a sharp satirical bent to Dennehy -- adopting a few personalities throughout the album -- easily making himself one of the most distinctive lyricists on the Chicago scene! Our favorite voice (of several) that Serengeti adopts is a quintessential southsider with a deez-and-dose delivery and a propensity to wheeze neighborhood institutions with a dead on precision that you might not fully appreciate if you haven't lived south of 26th St -- but there's much to love for anyone who digs unique, lyrically-centered hip hop. The set features production by Midas Wells, DJ Crucial, Emynd and others -- a bunch of guys that somehow find a way to match strong beats to eccentric rhymes about Brian Dennehy, the movie Critters, Tom Skilling, Tom Berenger, Minute Rice, Joey Cora (and other non-Cubbie Chicago sports figures you've never heard of), naval-gazing emo kids, O'Doul's and Ricobene's. - DustyGroove.com