Dessa, photo by Bill Phelps
Tonight’s show at the Crocodile is just filled to the brim with incredible diverse and explosive talent. It’s one of those shows where the openers could be headliners and the headliner transcends.
Dessa is in no uncertain terms; a wordsmith. She has been described as a combination of Mos Def and Dorothy Parker due to her mastery of the written and spoken word and the dry wit with which it is delivered. She began in the world of poetry slam while earning both her BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota before her incredible live performances brought her into the Doomtree hip hop collective where she quickly established a name for herself with the release of her solo EP False Hopes in 2005. Doomtree’s artists work together frequently and on track 3 (Press On) of False hopes you’ll find SiMs who we will be touring in support of her this time around. Dessa spent years appearing on many tracks in support of other Doomtree artists before releasing her first full length album “A Badly Broken Code” which was received incredibly well and cemented her as a voice in the indie hip hop world.
She is currently touring in support of her very recently released album Parts of Speech about which she says “I wanted to investigate the idea that a cohesive record isn’t always made cohesive by having twelve songs that sound the same. I figured when you make a mixtape for a friend, you can get away with a range of genres and a lot of dynamic change. Why can’t I approach an album like that? The sequence has to be just right, and we worked hard to nail it, but the thing that holds this record together is the sensibility of the lyrics, rather than a uniform theme.”
Parts of Speech accomplishes everything she was hoping to and more. It is a multi-faceted exploration into love, loss, and empowerment where each track is brilliant in it’s own right and when woven together into an album they build off of each other into one of the best album I have heard this year.
This brings us to one of the openers, SiMs. A founding member of the Doomtree collective taking on roles both performing and supporting the artists in Doomtree. His last full length album “Bad Time Zoo” (produced by fellow Doomtree’er Lazerbeak) is described as
“Over the pulse and sway of Lazerbeak’s urgent, expansive production, Sims raises 50-story verses and swings wrecking-ball choruses. With scenes straight from Darwin’s nightmares – people as animals gorging in the streets (“The Veldt”) – Bad Time Zoo is not so much a hip-hop album as a teeming, beat-driven urban wilderness.”
Recently he worked with Astronautalis to release a single “This Is the Place” which has been playing on repeat on my playlist for a long damn time.
Regardless, this show is not to be missed, absolutely epic talent throwing down in a fantastic venue.
