Is hip-hop dead? I think Chicago based rapper Serengeti would say “no.” With the release of three albums in 2006 and an upcoming compilation with Polyphonic, I would say he is working overtime to prove hip hop is alive and thriving. One of the three albums Serengeti released in 2006 is titled Dennehy. An album named after the actor Brian Dennehy, which revolves around three imaginary troublesome characters (Kenny, Derrick, and Jules), is a testament and a great example of how diverse hip hop actually is.

However, Serengeti goes into a more traditional — well if you can call an experimental hip hop artist traditional — direction with Noticeably Negro, which is a is a collection of fourteen expertly produced rap songs with a large streak of the alternative and abstract that doesn’t glorify violence, sex, or money.

So, if you’re not rapping about violence, sex, or money what the heck is there left to rap about? Well, I said the album was abstract so you can take any meaning or no meaning at all from the songs. But I’ll take a stab at trying to decipher a couple of the songs.

“T.R.I.U.M.P.H.” is my favorite track on the album because it makes me look back on my own triumphs and unfulfilled wishes. We accompany Serengeti as he travels around the world, enjoying life instead of working at a boring job. Serengeti tells the listener blatantly towards the end of the song that “this song is mostly about having wishes and following through with them without being bitches.”

The most abstract, interesting, and loaded song on the CD is “Negro Whimsy,” which satirizes violent, dope dealing, hip hop artists. The song features gun shots in the background and the listener is introduced to the hook “It’s like eating out the chamber pots and then saying you can’t believe how sick we got.” I’ll let you decipher the meaning of that phrase on your own.

I have a bad habit of skipping songs on CDs, especially if it’s a new CD. I didn’t have to skip songs with Noticeably Negro because all of the songs were original and the background on each song was with tinged with interesting hooks and fresh mixes. For example, the song “Puppies and Dogs” is a surreal mix that has a dog barking in the background.

Hip hop artists like Serengeti and MYSELF are exploding into the hip hop scene and hopefully these artists will lead hip hop into a new direction in which it screams to be taken.