Anticon, 2013
Kenny Dennis returns for his finest hour. I don’t know what
other people think of the walking, rapping Chicago stereotype for which
Serengeti mastermind David Cohn has been crafting a mythology since 2006, but I
think the whole Kenny Dennis is brilliant. The
Kenny Dennis LP might read as a joke-rap record if it wasn’t so flat-out
good. Sure it’s funny, and the skits provided by Workaholics’ Anders Holm (who effectively weaves himself into the
wonderfully expansive Kenny Dennis story over the course of the record) are
literally knee-slappingly funny (I always slap with my left hand, and I always knock my knee with my wedding ring, and it hurts, and for some reason I cannot train myself to not do this when I find something particularly hilarious). But the beats courtesy of Odd Nosdam are great
and varied, loaded with weird synthesizers and drums that often sound like
they’re cut from a dusty vintage rap album and ground into something off-kilter and fresh. It’s all off the wall, for sure, but what makes The Kenny Dennis LP special, and the
whole expansive Kenny Dennis mythology special, is that there is just so much
heart embedded in it.
Geti could have just left it at “Dennehy” and everyone would
have been fine with that. If you haven’t seen the video or heard the song,
please do yourself a favor and check it out right now. You’ve gotta think it’s
at least a little funny. Things got
out of hand quickly. In addition to churning out great hip-hop records not rapped in the voice of Kenny Dennis
(2011’s Family & Friends is
easily Geti’s masterpiece full of the wit and keenly observed heartbreak that
makes his albums such a pleasure), Kenny Dennis remains a constant presence in
Geti’s prolific output. He even went so far as to construct an entire album in
Kenny Dennis’ rap group from the 90s The Grimm Teachaz. That’s how deep this
shit is. And it’s great. It’s fun,
and a shot in the arm to a music world where everything has to be oh so serious
to be taken seriously.
It’s Cohn’s attention to detail and knack for emotional
resonance (especially in comical situations) that kills me though. “Kenny and
Jueles” does this best, as Kenny bemoans the fact that Jueles wasn’t even
excited when he crushed Nitro on American Gladiators only to find out she was
too proud to say anything out loud. And then they play competitive Scrabble
with their neighbors and Jueles drinks hot toddies and Kenny drinks O’Douls,
naturally. The skits from Ders really let you know the kind of guy Kenny Dennis
is. He’s the guy who would see a poor kid eyeing a laser tag set he couldn’t
afford and buy the kid a shower radio. A guy who would take the kid on stage at
a Grimm Teachaz show in Chicago on his birthday and introduce him to Bo
Jackson’s wife. A guy whose fued with Shaq is still messing with his life. A
guy who can’t even handle a visit to LA because he’s so entrenched in his blue-collar
existence in Chicago (Kenny finds fault with LA’s lack of a grid-system and its
dry heat). See, it’s all kind of silly, but Serengeti’s Kenny Dennis is
involving in the same way Hold Steady albums are involving. You get to know the
characters because the characters are so rich and sure you start out pointing
and laughing but then you’re rooting for Kenny. At first he sounds insane,
until you realize he’s a man who knows what he wants and you can respect that.
And then you realize that maybe Kenny Dennis is the smartest guy in the room.
"Directions" - The beat on this one, holy shit.
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