Esteemed underground rappers Yoni Wolf (of WHY?) and Serengeti have joined forces (as Yoni & Geti) for the upcoming collaborative album Testarossa. Unsurprisingly for anyone familiar with the high-minded work of the two artists, the LP is a conceptual one, with a central story following dual protagonists Maddy and Davy. The album’s press material explains Testarossa‘s plot in further detail:
Every song conceptualizes the saga of star-crossed lovers Maddy and Davy.
After Davy got Maddy pregnant, he proposed. The ceremony was a lovely, traditional affair. Shortly thereafter, Davy’s band took off and he rode the wave of garage rock revival. But alas, soon their music went out of vogue, and the tastemakers left them for dead. No blog would touch them with a ten-word post, but Davy never gave up. Music was the only life he knew, the only way he could pay the bills and process the pain.
So he took any gig he could get, canvassing the road, hoping to ignite his career at sparsely attended shows from Hoboken to Hamburg, Germany. Times were tough. Davy barely had any income to send home to Maddy and their now two children. With her husband on the road, she was forced to take a job as a cocktail waitress. Slightly debased, and getting hit on all the time, she eventually took solace in the arms of Davy’s old high school best friend/ex-bandmate.
And so on. The album ventures well outside the world of hip-hop, as evidenced by the advance song “Wassup (Uh Huh).” The two-minute track features Yoni and Geti trading leads over gentle acoustic plucking and subtle beatboxing, crooning “You talk Spanish / You talk Farsi / You on Spring Break / You gon’ canopy.” Listen to the lovely number here, look for Testarossa on May 6, courtesy of Joyful Noise, and catch Yoni & Geti on tour at the dates listed below.
Yoni & Geti tour dates:
May 27 — Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater
May 28 — Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi Fi
June 1 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
June 2 — Pontiac @ The Crofoot Pike Room
June 3 — Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness
June 4 — Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
June 7 — New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
June 8 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
June 9 — Providence, RI @ AS220
June 10 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
June 11 — Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
July 13 — Nashville, TN @ High Watt
July 15 — Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
July 16 — Austin, TX @ Sidewinder
July 18 — Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
July 19 — San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
July 21 — Los Angeles, CA @ the Echo
July 22 — Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
July 23 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
July 25 — Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
July 26 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
July 28 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
July 30 — Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
