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Local Sounds:
Serengeti
Dave Cohn is a very busy man. Under the name
Serengeti, he's released seven full-length albums since
2003 and has three more coming out in 2007. That may
seem like a lot, but even though Cohn started rapping
when he was 17, he didn't play his first gig until
almost 10 years later. During that time, he traveled to
Sweden, worked as a roofer in St. Louis and accumulated
loads of material.
“There was a period of, like,
five years [when] I would never go outside,” Cohn says.
“[I'd] stay in the house and just [be] sort of crazy
writing all the time. So now, years later, they're
coming out one by one.”
Sitting across the table
at Atomix on Chicago, Cohn looks more like an art
student than a hip-hop MC. He's wearing a vintage Bears
sweatshirt with the hoodie pulled over his unkempt hair,
which has grown out since the press photos were taken,
and large, square-shaped '80s-style glasses don his
face. One isn't sure if this look is intentional, or if
he just threw on whatever was lying on the floor.
After listening to Serengeti's diverse (and
overwhelmingly substantial) repertoire, you quickly
learn that the only thing you can expect from Cohn is
the unexpected. He only uses one moniker, but he's got
many different sides, and his vocal style at times
recalls everyone from a nerdy Aceyalone or Mr. Lif to a
marble-mouthed B.I.G. or Pharell Williams, but in his
own uniquely weird way. Albums such as 2005's
Noodle-Arm Whimsy (The Frozen Food Section) and
2006's Thunder Valley (Audio 8 Recordings), are
on the more quirky, experimental side. On the other
hand, 2005's Gasoline Rainbows (Day By Day
Entertainment) and 2006's Noticeably Negro (Audio
8) tend toward more serious subject matter while
retaining the humor Cohn does so well and incorporating
genres such as rock and electronic.
Despite
Cohn's prolific output, the ambitious Gasoline
Rainbows took five years to complete. “It was so
depressing,” he recalls. “I was working on the South
Side, [and] I was living all the way up in Rogers Park,
so it would take, like, an hour and a half to get there.
Then I'd go to the studio after work from six to
midnight. And I'd pay $300 a week to record this. It
just dragged out forever, and I thought this album was
gonna do something.”
Well, Cohn's got so many
pots cooking, one's bound to boil soon. His recent
Bonafyde full-length, Dennehy, is his best work
yet, and features three separate characters, each
distinctly different in sound and personality. Kenny is
the central figure, a Kools-smoking, O'Doul's-drinking,
Bears/'Hawks/Bulls fan who loves Brian Dennehy. “I used
to work on the Budweiser beer trucks, [and] one day the
word 'Dennehy' just came to my head,” Cohn says of the
character's origin. “And I was like, 'Wow, what if
somebody's favorite actor was Brian Dennehy? Like, what
would they be like?'” Kenny's theme song -- the title
track -- is so Chicago-centric that it's being used in
an upcoming feature film, Riffraff, that stars
Jim Belushi's son, Rob, and was shot mostly on North
Avenue Beach.
Kenny's polar opposite, Derek, is
a character that first made an appearance on
Noodle-Arm Whimsy. A snobby, upper-class guy who
sells meth, travels the world and speaks with a sort of
British accent; Cohn as Derek sounds like he's doing a
grime impression. “[That character is] based on American
greed,” Cohn explains. “You should get all the girls, do
all the drugs, have the biggest car, have everything
fresh, no matter what the cost. It's sort of based off
of one of my buddies. He's never had a bad day in his
life -- everything always works out for the guy.”
The third character is a kid who, like Cohn, has
a hard time finding his niche: “If you are a negro /
Then you can't be emo / But if you are a negro / Then
you can be nemo,” Serengeti raps on “IPod.”
Growing up, Cohn often felt the pressure from
the media and from the people around him to fit into a
certain mold or a stereotype. He spent part of his
childhood with his dad in the suburbs, where Cohn says
everyone was racist, and part with his mom in the 'hood.
She was really into activism and tried to get Cohn
involved as well, but he eventually gave up. “I'd go to
all these meetings when I was a little kid, and I was
selling these papers, and it just seemed like it was
never gonna do anything,” Cohn explains. “So it sort of
made me jaded. You just have to create your own
existence, 'cause you're never gonna be able to topple
all this stuff, you know.”
And he's been venting
through the pen ever since. Upcoming releases move
Serengeti into even vaster territory. His collaboration
with producer Polyphonic, Don't Give Up (Audio
8), features very introspective lyrics and combines
minimalist IDM, syncopated rhythms and dirty beats with
acoustic elements such as upright bass, violin and other
orchestration. And Serengeti's band, which consists of a
guitarist/keyboardist, a bassist and a drummer, has
recorded an album titled Marry Your Affair
(Bonafyde) that mixes together alterna-rock, psychedelic
jams and alt-country.
With all these projects,
how does Cohn keep everything straight? “Gasoline
was dealing with life and depression, the whole young
twenties,
you-don't-know-what-you're-going-to-do-after-college
type deal. With Dennehy I just wanted to do a fun
record. Noticeably Negro has this underground
indie sound to it, and all the songs just sort of fit,”
he explains. “I definitely know the place for each one.”
words: Amber Drea
For more SOUNDS, pick
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