Two Great Dessa Songs

[jesse_the_k]

Dessa is fierce and smart and I love her music. She's a white rapper from Minneapolis on the DOOMTREE label.

https://www.dessawander.com/music/

I HOPE I'M WRONG mourns the memory of a girlhood friend.

FIRE DRILLS rages against the victim-blaming bullshit that puts women on the constant defensive against violence.

ETA: rydra_wong tells me Dessa is "half-Puerto Rican", not white.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Pedantry (but identity is important etc.): Dessa's not white, she's half Puerto-Rican.

(She has a bit in Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Almost Like Praying".)

Anyway YES SHE IS SO FUCKING AWESOME. And frequently has amazing videos for her songs, too -- have you seen her "5 out of 6" video, where all the lyrics are written in fan-made crafts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsJSC4hwqgo

https://craftcouncil.org/post/dessa-mixes-craft-and-rap-new-5-out-6-video

I really love Doomtree's collective work, too, and have been dipping into the individual work by some of the other members -- I really like some of P.O.S.'s work too.

Thank you for correction!

[jesse_the_k]

I like being accurate.

[kalmn]

Thank you! I was confused by why she was on the Hamilton mixtape but had settled down to other people know more stuff than I do.

[rydra_wong]

I only know because it came up in an interview -- someone was asking her about being a white girl in rap and she politely said nope, though noting that she has whatever advantages come with being "white-passing" in appearance.

[rydra_wong]

Also I LOVE the vid for "Half of You":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AOAjHUVpEQ

I don't have words for how cool that video is

[jesse_the_k]

....like it gives me another 200 reasons to listen to the lovely song.

THANK YOU!

Re: I don't have words for how cool that video is

[rydra_wong]

I especially love the fact that all the crafters' names are on their work! That feels important, that it's not just an anonymous mass of fans, it's giving credit to all the individual people who contributed.

[sciatrix]

I LOVE HER SO MUCH THAT IS ALL

For my money, "Lamb" is one of the best stories set to music I've ever heard, about an adult childhood abuse victim choosing to take care of her newly disabled abuser and openly considering her choices.

"Seamstress," also very very good, also very interesting in the way it toys with the way that good intentions--at least, good in the mind of the narrator--do not always make good deeds. (I ran out of thread / but that's not sewing, that's just poking holes)

[rydra_wong]

Yes, a lot of her songs are closer to being actual short stories than anything else I've heard.

The video for The Lamb is very good, in a way I can't pin down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb_nGy9ARCc

[sciatrix]

The two other artists I can think of who as as lyrically gifted that way, who can paint songs as stories, are Missy Higgins and Vienna Teng. But they have vastly different musical genres.

It's such a skill. Like the acoustic equivalent of tiny dollhouse diaramas, little self contained universes that we the audience can just peer into, with the sense that there's so much more under the surface.

and DOLLHOUSE DIORAMA

[jesse_the_k]

is now the name of my emo folk-roots band!

[jesse_the_k]

Wow. LAMB. Wow.

Her artistry makes me speechless.

[sylvaine]

DESSA \o/

I heard her first in a fantastic Natasha Romanov fanvid to The Bullpen, and that one remains one of my favourite songs of hers.