I had the honor of sitting down with Chicago hip hop artist Serengeti and talking about his upcoming show as part of the Andrew Broder residency at the Turf Club on February 6. It's a fitting location for his show, since Kenny Dennis, his alter-ego, ends up in Minnesota on his new album Dennis 6e. This record is the end of his series of releases featuring the Kenny Dennis alter-ego, but Serengeti's career as a rapper continues.

Although I had never interviewed him, I've met Serengeti many times. I first met Serengeti in the summer of 2002 when my band, Heiruspecs, was heading down to St. Louis for the first time. At that time, Serengeti was connected with a record label called f5 from the area and he was at one of the shows. Even then I remember 'Geti's mellow demeanor. I listened to a couple of his tracks when I got home and I quickly discovered he was an incredible rapper. The next summer I ran into Serengeti again when we were both at Scribble Jam in Cincinnati. Scribble Jam was one of the first national level festivals catered toward underground hip-hop artists, and that night Serengeti got to meet one of his heroes, MF Doom. I ran into Serengeti moments after and the joy on his face was so palpable that I had to ask him about the experience at the beginning of this interview.

Serengeti has quietly become one of the most revered artists in the underground hip-hop world. As I stumbled and navigated the long and twisting tale of his alter-ego, Kenny Dennis, I gathered that Serengeti is the type of artist who is compelled to make songs that take stories and characters to their logical (and sometimes illogical) endpoints. It seemed that, as the Kenny Dennis universe expanded and grew to involve decades of backstory, Serengeti was racing to flesh out this character. And in Dennis 6e, he finally has. Over a bed of desolate, moody beats crafted by Andrew Broder, Serengeti helped Kenny Dennis look soberly inward for the first time in the character's history.

Use the audio player above to understand more about how Serengeti's alter-ego, the once fun-loving O'Doul's drinking Chicagoan Kenny Dennis, became a disillusioned, solitary resident of Minnesota in the final chapter of the character's story.

Related

Serengeti on Bandcamp
Event info: Andrew Broder & 37 d03d a Residency at the End of the World February 6, 2019
The Message for January 23, 2019