Serengeti is an inventive and introspective veteran rapper who remains under the radar, even after winning over a huge cross-section of critics. A native of Chicago who recently relocated to Los Angeles, his new Family & Friends is Serengeti's first solo album released by Anticon, and the title track features labelmate Yoni Wolf (of Why?) on the hook.
Family & Friends' title track juxtaposes a humble but idyllic vision of family — "Change your own oil / Read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle / Keep in touch with your cousins / A job selling ovens" — with a haunting chorus, which implies that the song's vision is just a fantasy. "When things aren't going quite as planned / you often hear the truth / from your family and friends," Wolf sings in a disorienting near-moan. Family & Friends is one of the best albums of 2011 so far, and many of its other songs similarly dissect failing relationships and the breakdown of the nuclear family. Serengeti makes a lot of dark music these days, but not in the sense of Odd Future's violent tales. Instead, he's focused on just how difficult adult life can be.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
