Five years ago, while brothers Yoni and Josiah Wolf were hip-deep in the process of making their eventual 2012 releases as Why? — the Sod in the Seed EP and their fourth full-length, Mumps, Etc. — younger brother Yoni was just coming off his first collaboration with David Cohn, an Alternative Hip Hop artist known in the wider world as Serengeti. At that point, Serengeti had already released over a dozen recordings since 2003, under his own banner and in a variety of group configurations. 2011’s Family & Friends found the conceptual rapper working with Yoni and Owen Ashworth (Casiotone for the Painfully Alone/Advance Base) to create a dark but wryly humorous set that detailed the foibles of a motley group of characters, including addicts, bigamists and failed UFC warriors.
While Yoni and Serengeti subsequently toured together, the pair envisioned another more detailed and thematic story, a tale of fated and doomed love between Garage Rock aspirant Davy and his long-suffering wife Maddy, and the spiraling descent of Davy’s road debauchery and Maddy’s shifting roles between mother of two, cocktail waitress and unfaithful wife. They titled their mini-opus Testarossa, after one of the most produced and highest-priced cars in Ferrari’s history and, given the pair’s equal participation in the conception and execution of the album, they dubbed their partnership Yoni & Geti.
Testarossa cements Serengeti’s reputation as a Hip Hop innovator and mirrors Why?’s evolution from Yoni’s solo Hip Hop identity to his Indie Rock full-band project with brother Josiah to the ultimate blending of those two entities. Conceptually, Testarossa continues Serengeti’s tendency toward bleak tales told in album form and his drive to inject Indie Pop/Rock verve into his Hip Hop direction, while its musical presentation heralds his new and fully formed collaborative relationship with Yoni. Imagine a sonic cocktail comprised of the most potent elements of Why?, The National and Mark Oliver Everett’s Hip Hop busman’s holiday as MC Honky, all overseen by one of Hip Hop’s freshest and most musical minds. Testarossa is an auspicious next step in what one can only hope is the continuation of Yoni & Geti’s long, beautiful partnership.
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This article appears in May 25 – Jun 1, 2016.
