There's a Situation on the Homefront

Serengeti’s depiction of Kenny Dennis was already vivid enough early on — an archetype that became a character, then a character that became a persona, and finally a persona that became an attraction in his own right. The real twist of inspiration early on was for Geti to acknowledge that the reason this hoarse-voiced, mustachioed, 50-something white “Super Bowl Shuffle” aficionado expressed himself through hip-hop was that he could actually spit back in the day. Alongside fellow MC Prince Midnight Dark Force (played by Chicago-born Hi-Fidel) and DJ Koufie (providing classic DITC headknock beats and played by… himself?), There’s a Situation on the Homefront reveals “KDz” as a member of a hardcore hip-hop crew, stylistically somewhere between Black Moon boom-bap and Gravediggaz horrorcore, that blew a record deal with Jive when Kenny tangled with Shaquille O’Neal backstage at a label showcase in ‘93. Along with the note-perfect detail of their becoming yet another Industry Rule #4,080 hip-hop major-label casualty, Tha Grimm Teachaz is a fond if lightly irreverent snapshot of hip-hop’s underground on the brink of its early ‘90s Wu-era boiling point, with the added knowledge of what Kenny rapped like before life kicked him in the ass. Geti retrofits his Kenny Dennis voice with (slightly) less of the rasp that arrived after a couple decades’ worth of Kools, leaning into his bellowing breathlessness and deftly mixing up period-detail punchlines with era-appropriate rappin’-ass-rapper kineticism (from “Whatchyougonnado?”: “Metaphorically, metaphysically/Destroying MCs critically, Sentimentally/Don’t worry be happy like Bobby McFerrin/Boutros Boutros, no repairin’”). And PMDF complements his energy with a sharper-toned authority that makes Tha Grimm Teachaz embody the push-pull of being equally conversant in 5 Percenter doctrine and action-movie threats. The funny thing is that even when it ladles on the ‘90s references and hint at further ridiculous twists in Kenny Dennis lore (before Jueles, there was “Melissa”), There’s a Situation on the Homefront doesn’t sound like a frivolous novelty or a parody of a certain strain of semi-subterranean hardcore hip-hop — it’s a love letter to formative influences, a what-if scenario from artists who were too young to join that world but old enough to experience its revelations at a critical time.