Dessa Reviewed by Dwight Hobbes
Dessa Reviewed by Dwight Hobbes
Dessa: Innovative rapping, marvelous vocals, alluring presence
Twin Cities Daily Planet archives
By Dwight Hobbes,
If wordsmith-songbird Dessa isn't the future of hip-hop, she should be.
Twin Cities spoken-word/hip-hop wizardry is internationally lauded. Truthmaze blew up big as Fat Albert. So did Desdamona. Toki Wright and Sh Cage steady represent both the States and across the globe, cold bum-rushing the international front. Trust me, though, you ain't seen nothin'. Dessa brandishes innovative rapping, marvelous vocals and more alluring stage presence than the law probably allows. For her recent Triple Rock Social Club appearance on Minneapolis' West Bank, the place was packed with wide-eyed, slack-jawed gazers who could not get enough of her earthen grace. She encouraged stage-side attendees to dance, but you really couldn't blame them for just standing there, dumbstruck. Dessa does that to you. Regularly.
Rolling with the renowned Doomtree Records crew, this siren debuted with the EP False Hopes last year and is looking at spring to follow with a full-length album. A bit of background: Dessa bills herself as a spoken-word poet, essayist and rapper. I don't know why she left out hypnotic vocalist, cause when she sings it's like there is absolutely nothing else going on in the whole world. Also, she is a 2005 Jerome/SASE grant recipient, and was nominated for Best Spoken Word Artist at the MN Music Awards two years running (2005, 2006). Dessa slammed for the Minnesota team, winning the 2002 Grand Slam, and has shared the stage with the likes of Wyclef Jean, Atmosphere and fellow Twin Cities phenom Jessy Greene - who sat in on violin and vocals at Triple Rock.
Sitting in the dressing room with both Dessa and Jessy is not recommended for the faint of heart. Both incredibly gifted women are drop-dead gorgeous. I brave the task, though. When asked how Dessa came by her trademark vocal phrasing, she recalls, "When I was a kid, my mom and I, when we were driving in the car, would have little contests; to see who could sing the most creative harmony line. Along with whatever was playing on the radio. So, probably the bulk of my musical training happened in a Camry." Mom must've been something else, because Dessa threads very inventive melodies, employing uncanny imagination. You can hear a fine example of her harmonizing with Jessy Greene on the haunting "You're Breakin' Up" off Greene's album, A Demon & Her Lovers.
While Dessa's new disc waits to drop, False Hopes represents this amazing artist just fine. The cut "Kites" features a sultry vocal, conveying lyrics that are state-of-the-art stream-of-consciousness. Accorded the airplay it deserves, "Kites" would be to this era what Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" was to the late 70s - a through-the-roof hit that stands the music industry on its ear.
Some of it goes like this: "From beneath it all looks the same/Gum-covered and rusted from the rain/The neon burns a hole in the night/And the Freon burns a hole in the sky/You can find my kind/Living right on the fault lines/Eyes on the seaside, lives on the b-sides/Kites on the power lines." The lines, "Cupid limps in two years too late/ With a love letter for the ugly sister/I'm sorry but you missed her mister, mystery to me/How lost you seem to be," give Bob Dylan's "Ballad Of A Thin Man" a real run for the money. And when Dessa throws down a rap, jump up and stand back. "551," a salty, percussive gem, goes: "She's a Latter Day Saint/But she's a Saturday sinner/Suicide Sunday desserts/For weekends drinkin' her dinner/The worry keeps her slender/The pills keep her awake/Her man can't make her happy/But he helps to still the shakes."
Long story short, Dessa has superstar stamped all over her in block letters. Watch for her on the horizon. She definitely will be there.
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