A Year In December is a series of notes in which I talk about a song a day until the end of the year. Today, I talk about something by Serengeti.
Serengeti is rap’s David Foster Wallace. I sometimes can’t tell if I’m a fan of the real artist David Cohn, his work as Serengeti, or Serengeti’s alter-ego Kenny Dennis. The albums in which the latter appears are all hilarious, in a heart-warming way. Kenny Dennis is like your uncle who brags about being really great at foosball, who definitely did spend copious amounts of time playing hooky and finding an arcade to practice the art of ‘cranking the mid-line’ and ‘palm-rolling the offensive bar’ (your uncle’s words, not mine) back when he was young, but who no longer has the chops due to his 9-5 job selling insurance. Kenny Dennis on ‘Different’ is “sick of these fake emcees.” He will eat “your rings like calamaris” then go Down Under to hang out with Maoris (I’m sure Serengeti knows Maoris are from New Zealand, but of course Kenny Dennis doesn’t, or Kenny Dennis doesn’t care because Kenny Dennis is the GOAT and won’t let fact get in the way of a great rhyme). And yet, and yet, and yet, I hear myself saying because Kenny Dennis is a human being just like me and you, who, perhaps like Michael Scott, just wants to be loved and to love. So when Kenny Dennis 6e ends with ‘Difference’ which actually turns out to be a note to his love Jueles (who also has her own album, by Serengeti), I choke up a little. No spoilers. Go check out the script or dig deep into the discography. Welcome to David Cohn’s world.
Joel Mak 