If hip-hop songs were movies, your typical banger would be a blockbuster action flick: hyperreal, hypermasculine, heavy on stunts and special effects, light on substance. Open Mike Eagle and Serengeti (a.k.a. David Cohn) don't make those kinds of songs. Their music is the heady, darkly humorous indie movie of the hip-hop world. What they lack in budget, they make up for with nuanced characters and sharp commentary about the human condition — specifically, the experience of the blue-collar artist.
Longtime friends but first-time collaborators, Eagle and Serengeti have joined up to form the duo Cavanaugh. More than just an excuse to trade rhymes with a buddy, their project Time And Materials is a concept album in which the two play namesake characters Mike and Dave, two dissatisfied maintenance workers at the fictional Cavanaugh housing development. It's part luxury condo and part low-income housing project, with two separate entrances for its rich and poor tenants. [Timmhotep Aku for NPR]
In a new urban development on the far west side of Detroit, Florida, it's mandated by a 5 to 4 city council vote that a new housing structure be erected that has both luxury condominium units available for private ownership and section 7 housing in the same building. Via separate entrances the Cavanaugh building services two very different populations. And though the lifestyles of the residents vary, each unit relies on the same system of pipes and wiring and are serviced by the same crew.
Mike and Dave have a combined 14 years of experience in Cavanaugh maintenance. They usually work drunk, mumbling greetings to the residents, soaking up all the disdain that the higher and lower income inhabitants have for each other. They talk shit to each other all day. Complaining about their home lives, spinning passive aggressive tales where they pretend to be angrier, stronger, more expressive men.
