Serengeti - Teenager | Divshare | YSI | 170 kbps (VBR)

Today's special guest Rap Week contributor is Ben Westhoff. He's a writer in Hoboken and you can follow his adventures at The Healthiest Man in Park Slope.

I’ve been writing about Chicago rapper Serengeti for years. Nobody cares, nobody listens. Not even Skinny keeps up with his career, and he once made a beat for Serengeti. The guy’s gonna quit, for God’s sake, if you hip hop heads don’t fall in line. But he’s the best. He’s funny and skilled, a rare rapper whose words have made me think differently about my life.

“Teenager,” one of the new songs from his retooled "Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action)" album, captures the ecstasy and inconvenience of youth. It’s the story of two youngsters, one a girl whose parents catch her swearing and take away her cell phone and B2K concert tickets, and the other a guy tooling around with his friend Ox Oxley, a half-Cuban lad whose mother has great tits. “His moms used to say, ‘What the fuck is ya’ll monkeys doin’?’ Nothing Miss Ma’am, I’m just tryin’ to figure out who the fuck I really am.” That line is killer, as is this couplet, which incorporates slang and poor grammar to stunning effect: “One thing’s for certain, remember when you do that party everybody started Smurfin’. And you can ask Extra Credit, things tend to get out of hand if you let it.” The song doesn’t just make you reminisce about being a kid, it makes you feel alive as an adult.

Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action) is available on iTunes. Go buy it, because ‘Geti has a kid. I’m talking to you, Skinny.