“All I Need is a Beat, I Break a Four-Count”: Minneapolis’ Dessa celebrates her debut album at the Fine Line Music Cafe

On a night that turned out to be calamitous to the Twin Cities hip-hop scene, with the Twin Cities Hip-Hop Awards ending in a brawl at First Avenue (an atypical event for Minneapolis/St. Paul hip-hop), just down the street at the Fine Line Music Cafe, Dessa and the Doomtree crew of which she is the only female member collaborated in a truly fervent and energetic performance, filling the Fine Line with nothing but love from all involved parties.

Everyone’s lively spirits were for good reason: Dessa (finally) released her debut album, A Badly Broken Code, on January 19th, after releasing one album in Doomtree’s False Hopes series and appearing on numerous tracks on Doomtree releases. A Badly Broken Code finds Dessa exploring and experimenting with hip-hop, adding in strings, as well as singing frequently herself, all while still comfortably rapping within beats typical of the Doomtree sound, which is, as fellow Doomtree member P.O.S. says, “bringing the Bomb Squad density.” But most of all, these soothing, exploratory departures made me curious to see how Dessa would translate the moments to live performance.

As it turns out, my questions were answered quickly, when it became obvious that Dessa was going to split her performance into two halves: one with live instrumentation, complete with violin and standup bass players and two amazing backup singers, and another with the Doomtree crew, including Sims and P.O.S., along with Paper Tiger on the turntables (and laptop, as the custom has become at hip-hop shows these days). In between the two, as Dessa went to change out of her “uncomfortable” dress that cost $26, according to her, the rest of Doomtree took over the stage to entertain the 700 or so audience members.

However, throughout it all, the spotlight was focused on Dessa; during their set, P.O.S. pointed out how proud everyone in Doomtree was of Dessa and her new album and that it was great to see how many people came out to the Fine Line to show their support. For me, seeing the tremendous amount of support in the audience for a female hip-hop artist, in particular, was heartening. Women are, of course, underrepresented as musicians at large, but this curvaceously-shaped gap is especially large in hip-hop; it is a difficulty that Dessa addresses on “The Bullpen” from A Badly Broken Code, stating, “It’s assumed that I’m either soft or irrelevant, ’cause I refuse to downplay my intelligence. But, in a room full of thugs and rap veterans, why am I the only one who’s acting like a gentleman?”

For an incredibly talented writer and MC like Dessa, who happens to be a woman, it is a valid question, though one that goes unanswered as of yet. But, at least for the night, the focus was on celebration, triumph, and delight, a fact that was best exemplified by Dessa’s closing bit, a choreographed dance in jesting response to her nickname, “Dancing Ass Dessa.” (You can find it, like everything else these days, on Youtube.) As is the case with the entire Doomtree crew, Dessa does things her way, an independently-minded strategy that has and continues to pay off for her, hopefully for years to come.—Cassie Traun, Editor; Pictures by Jon Behm