photo: Bill Phelps

Dessa | Parts of Speech (Doomtree)

Dessa is that Minnesota rapper whose debut album A Badly Broken Code got sizable chart action back in 2010. Dessa's decidedly a rapper, yes, but she's a poetry-slam veteran, a former philosophy student and a published author too, so sheÕs coming from a somewhat different place given the context in which she now chooses to express herself. As with Code or its 2011 followup Castor, The Twin, her rhymes and themes on Parts of Speech impart a genuinely literary experience, not merely like having just paid somebody to yell at you all day or give you history lessons and all that kinda thing. While DessaÕs raps traverse a lot of the usual word-turf (living, loving, losing, learning) in cuts like ÒThe Man I KnewÓ and the anthemic ÒCall Off Your Ghost,Ó she writes them as character-driven stories and brings them to life with an articulate confidence that, while veering toward bathos, comes off both moving and illuminating thanks to her minute, writerly attention to lyrical detail; thatÕs a quality found in tracks of remarkably different character, such as ÒBeekeeperÓÕs reference to the god Prometheus or ÒSound the BellsÓÕs tip oÕ the hat to the mapmaking skills of Mercator. As on DessaÕs previous albums, the beautifully textured backing tracks and supra-slamming beats come courtesy Doomtree collective members Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger, along with live playing by several Minneapolis musicians whose usual domain, interestingly, is in the rock, folk and opera fields ÐÐ thereÕs a frigginÕ cello on this rap album! Dessa says sheÕs all about transcending genre, and with Parts of Speech she succeeds.
ÐÐ John Payne