Dessa

“Dessa combines the dry wit of Dorothy Parker with the beat of Mos Def.” - Minnesota Public Radio

“If wordsmith-songbird Dessa isn’t the future of hip-hop, she should be.” - Insight News

“Dessa, the only female artist in Doomtree, has the soul of Lauryn Hill and packs prose like Jack Kerouac.” - Alibi.com

The gulf between the spoken word and the written word can often prove impossible to bridge. Many have tried, most have drowned, and the literary seabed is strewn with bleached skeletons of the bold but butchered.

But Dessa, the Doomtree collective's poet in residence, manages the crossing with remarkable expertise -- Spiral Bound, her debut chapbook of poetry and prose, is a dominantly dazzling literary debut. In this largely outstanding volume of ten, Dessa infuses even the most miniature of her works with perfect vascular systems. Her themes breathe, pump human blood, and sport her language like tailored linen suits, and the entire volume is proof that Dessa's gifts for the page are beyond dispute.

Many of Dessa's fans might expect a poetry volume, but Spiral Bound is predominantly a work of prose. It's a thankful decision-- the brief poems that function best as interludes which emphasize Dessa's pronounced talents for the unbroken line. Dessa is at her best when she travels light, maneuvering in compact prose works like "Alice Drowning," "The Greatest Remove," and "Sleeping On The Stairs," a triptych of internal alienations that open the volume. Unsurprisingly, her work is intensely personal. There's little room for bravado here, and Dessa executes her numerous self-portraits with a courageous eye. Neither maudlin nor saccharine, Spiral Bound addresses all of its themes at unerring eye level. The effect is often moving, and always immersive.

There are a couple slight issues with the text -- as evidenced by her interview with Gimme Noise, much of the work's power is derived from its immediacy, and several pieces were completed mere days before the work hit the press. Still, Dessa and the collective to which she belongs are consummate pros, and Spiral Bound would have benefited from a more thorough proofreading. Additionally, the longer works, "The Leviathan" and "Camera Obscura," don't amount to quite as much as the smaller pieces.

But those are minor complaints. Dessa is an artisan of the language, crafting her lines and ideas with a potter's gentleness. Once fired on the page, of course, her imagery and the force of her convictions are purest concrete. Through and through, Spiral Bound is etched in glass -- at once a liquid and a solid, and always perfectly transparent. The volume bears the Doomtree seal, and an easily decoded "DTP 001" beneath it. Here's hoping Spiral Bound is just the first of many works to emerge from this fledgling press. - City Pages

​"Should I say anything special?" P.O.S. asked at the start of Doomtree's Fifth Annual Blowout at First Avenue, as if he and the rest of the group haven't already said enough on their stellar string of albums over the years. The club was sold out based on the strength of that material, as well as their notorious live shows. He didn't end up saying anything too momentous between songs, but he proceeded to tear the roof off the club along with Doomtree's four other emcees, who hadn't shared the same stage together since last year's Blowout. The group didn't show any signs of rust as they incisively ripped through material both new and old during the fabulous show.

The Blowout was structured the same way it has been in years past, with the whole crew coming out for a short, half hour set at the start -- kicked off by a spirited version of "Gander Back" -- before each individual emcee took over for 20-minute segments, leading up to the group reuniting for an explosive full-lineup finish.

Besides the live debut of plenty of new material from False Hopes XV, other highlights of the night included both Cecil Otter and Dessa experimenting with their sound while performing with live bands. Otter fronted a group that featured bass and drums, while Dessa had a three-piece, with a guitar, clarinet, and stand-up bass (played by Twinkie Jiggles from Heiruspecs), which added depth to new material from her forthcoming solo record, A Badly Broken Code. Dessa also brought out Aby Wolf (who had made an appearance with the full crew earlier in the night) to lend her lush vocals to a song. Both groups added a natural, organic element to tracks that were already packed with emotion and intensity.

​A technical glitch prevented the premier of Mike Mictlan's "Prize Fight" video directly before his performance, which seemed to throw him off a bit at the start. But Mictlan still delivered an energetic set that featured a fiery version of "Hand Over Fist" and a tempestuous "Game Over" with P.O.S. and Sims, who each delivered tight, animated performances as well. P.O.S. (who flew in from D.C. just for the show, and was due to play Atlanta the next night) dug through his entire catalog during his intense segment, and seemed genuinely appreciative of the massive and adoring audience who sang along to every word of "De La Souls." He closed with an impassioned, fierce version of "Purexed" that was one of my favorite songs of the night.

​But this was the Doomtree Blowout, after all, so of course the best parts of the evening were when the entire crew performed together, along with DJs Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger, who kept heads nodding all night long. Doomtree really has nothing to prove at this point, but they put on a show filled with both intensity and purpose as if they had to win over the capacity crowd all over again. So tunes like "Accident," "The Wren," and "Slow Burn," which are dynamic and energetic to begin with, were given an extra bit of venom by the band's determined delivery. The three hour show flaunted the varying talents of each member of Doomtree, and that diverse mix of styles and personalities added up to a volatile and high-spirited performance that left the crowd energized and awestruck.

- City Pages