Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Dessa for the Holidays


If you need a last minute holiday gift, I suggest the 2010 hip-hop CD by Dessa, Badly Broken Code. (Dessa was in Austin in November as part of her 40-city tour.) Singing was part of her upbringing, but performance wasn't. Her mother used to challenge her to come up with harmonies to songs on the radio. But her first career path was to get a masters in philosophy and then become a technical writer.

Then she took a stab at slam poetry competitions at the urging of a friend, which brought her into contact with the Minneapolis hip-hop scene. Through the poetry slam circuit, Dessa met members of the Doomtree collective, of which she was soon a member, and started rapping with them.

She began writing her own hip hop songs with a more writerly approach at the urging of P.O.S., another Doomtree member. Being a wordsmith, she likes the rap format where she can get a high word count in three minutes.

Her solo debut, A Badly Broken Code is loaded with literate, thoughtful rhymes influenced by her background in poetry and philosophy. I especially like the violin-enhanced Matches to Paper Dolls, a song about clinging to a failed relationship.

Check out the cd from the Library, or browse any Library location's music cd collection. You will find something to like and check out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dessa and POS are awesome! I didn't know the library carried their albums!?!?

Anonymous said...

The Library doesn't have any POS cds but I will let the ordering team know.