Biography
The avant-garde hip-hop pair Serengeti & Polyphonic, hailing from Chicago, came together officially in 2007 upon issuing their first full-length album, Don't Give Up, even though both had participated in the city's experimental music community from the start of the decade. Polyphonic, whose real name is Will Freyman and who also goes by Polyphonic the Verbose, was raised in Champaign, Illinois, where he engaged with classical piano and jazz trombone in addition to various other instruments across ensembles ranging from Indonesian gamelan ensembles to Medieval choruses and a self-assembled 12-piece hip-hop big band. Following his studies in classical composition at the University of Illinois, Freyman turned toward production work, contributing to Dolce Stil Nuovo's releases from 2001, 2003, and 2004, handling Pugzlee Atomz's Playing with Matches in 2001, and co-producing Wick's initial effort Locket in a Well in 2006. In that year as well, Polyphonic put out his own first solo project Abstract Data Ark, which included appearances by several guest MCs, one of whom was Serengeti, an acquaintance he had encountered at a gathering two years earlier. Serengeti himself, born David Cohn and the great-nephew of Count Basie trumpeter Sonny Cohn, spent his formative years alternating between Chicago's Southside and the Olympia Fields suburb. Having developed an interest in hip-hop and lyricism, he only began committing tracks to tape in the early 2000s upon his return from time studying overseas in Japan. His debut album Dirty Flamingo arrived in 2003, after which he produced a flurry of material that included five complete albums during 2006 alone: Dennehy, Thunder Valley, Race Trading, Gasoline Rainbows, and Noticeably Negro. Polyphonic provided the beats for just one of those, Race Trading, yet the partnership proved so compatible that the pair committed to creating an entire album together. Following the issuance of Don't Give Up on the Audio 8 imprint, which had ties to numerous other endeavors by the two, Serengeti issued further records alongside Yoome featuring vocalist Renee Louise Carafice and producer Tony Trimm, and with Friday Night in collaboration with fellow experimental rapper Hi Fidel. Meanwhile Polyphonic pursued his Juba Dance endeavor, an electronic outfit with Brazilian influences alongside Ben Lamar. The duo joined the anticon roster in 2009 thanks to cofounder Adam "Doseone" Drucker, which led to the June 2009 launch of Terradactyl and subsequent touring alongside Black Moth Super Rainbow, Deerhoof, and Why?.
Albums
