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- [00:10]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Now we'll hear some music from the rapper and composer Dessa. She got her start in the Minneapolis hip hop collective Doomtree. Since then, she's brought her artistic sensibilities to some very different kinds of projects. She's performed with the Minnesota Orchestra. She's on the Hamilton Mixtape. She's also been an artist in residence at Georgetown University. And recently she put out a new EP called Tough Call. Camelot. She came to WNYC to share some of that music in our performance studio. She began with a song called Camelot. Let's listen.
- [01:01]
Dessa
Cheap gas broadband wheatgrass news cleanse only fans Bourgeoisie is bourgeois deux that's bourgeois me and bourgeoisieu that technocrat has a funny salute Might not meet the burden of proof but too rich to refuse a Q Fahrenheit 452 all health and wellness but just for self and the little self led's got a moral mandate to try to get rich to stack the pancakes or back up your plate for me and my kids all fools for the pyrite they get a hole in the roof for a skylight season recap Go get caught up now Streaming White Lotus Gaza welcome to Camelot don't make it play with none of the lights turn off keeps us on air it gets noisy at night but if you've nothing to hide you should sleep the room fire think tank, go fish, dunk tank you're in next act has a spray tan and a flashbang and the first amendment and a burn can't risk it wish I could but tell you what, let me knock on wood and if the guardrails hold up like
- [02:02]
they should we should all be double plus good.
- [02:13]
It gets noisy at night but if you've nothing to hide you should sleep through and find don't look to the left, don't look to the right don't look back at those behind welcome to Camelot Asleep in the band. Make a plaster cast of my conscience just for posterity all the coins in my pockets banging tell tale tambourine creature comforts who amongst us wouldn't want what the rich man does? But that's the thing about the lap of luxury the lap of luxury can't stand up welcome to Caroline where's my Z? Where's my Too sad to watch, Too cold to march we sat and talked no joke, no fun.
- [03:52]
Alison Stewart
That was Camelot from Dessa Live in WNYC Studio. The song comes from the new ep. When did you write that track?
- [04:00]
Dessa
Yeah, I wrote it in 2025. So, you know, I grew up in Minneapolis, and it was before the Ice Presence began in Minneapolis.
- [04:09]
Alison Stewart
I was wondering, did you write it because it was the way you were feeling, or did you write it for the people who needed to hear it?
- [04:17]
Dessa
You know, I haven't written too many political songs throughout my career, but I know that I don't like being lectured, and I really wanted to try to write a political song where I was a member of the group that could use some changing too, you know, so for me, using words like I and we were really important instead of like, let me tell you how it is and how you gotta be like, it's tough. So, yeah, I guess I did write it in response to the, you know, the news that we're all seeing and feeling a lot of times totally overwhelmed by and uncertain how to react.
- [04:49]
Alison Stewart
What was the hardest part of that song to write?
- [04:52]
Dessa
Ooh.
- [04:53]
You know, I was a little bit afraid, just because of the way that we communicate online, that including a line overtly about Gaza would be tricky. And by tricky, I mean I was afraid to read the comments. I was also afraid to read the DMs, you know, but I think for the most part, people have been really receptive. Yeah.
- [05:16]
Alison Stewart
Well, I think the juxtaposition of White Lotus next to Gaza is really in the song.
- [05:20]
Dessa
Yeah, yeah. I mean, just. Yes, exactly. And I think. Okay, I think it was in part, like, you know, when initially Trump had posted, like, an AI generated visual image of, like, the new resort that Gaza would become, and that feeling of like, you know, you're spinning out and yelling back at the radio, you know, hope
- [05:38]
Alison Stewart
you're not yelling at us. When did you write the rest of the songs on the ep?
- [05:44]
Dessa
So I wrote them pretty quickly back to back. I'm. This is my first venture as a, like, as a producer, you know, where I produced. Yeah. But both at. Both of the tracks fully with some help from friends at home, Lazerbeak and Andy Thompson. So, yeah, pretty close. Back to back. I went to South Africa, worked with some friends there who initially I had planned to tour with, but were denied visas by the. By the State Department. And so I was able to do some field recordings there of the guitar line that's featured. Yeah. In one of the tracks on the record.
- [06:13]
Alison Stewart
That's interesting. Do you usually write songs back to back like that?
- [06:16]
Dessa
I mean, I'm so slow, Alison, do you know what I'm saying? Like, whatever you're imagining back to back, you know, spread that out over, like, many pages of the calendar.
- [06:26]
Alison Stewart
I'm laughing because the rest of the band is laughing as well.
- [06:29]
Dessa
I don't have to look left and right to feel them clowning me 100%. Yeah.
- [06:33]
Alison Stewart
There was an essay that you wrote in Mother Jones about the protests in Minneapolis. You live there now, and there were six years between 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement and 2026 and the ICE raids. What stood out to you between the two eras of protest? The 2020 protests and the 2026 protests?
- [06:55]
Dessa
You know, I think to me, when you read history books and you try to, like, cut and paste yourself into a major pivot point in history, it just seems so much cleaner. Like, there are two sides, and you pick one. And I think in reality is wildly confusing. Do you know what I mean? That's part of it. Like, information is flying left and right. You're not sure what to believe or who are your trusted sources. So for me, I think those two periods of, like, experience and now history, legitimate history, you know, in Minneapolis were really defined by the kind of connections that neighbors made. You know, so, like, in addition to the major news sources, it's like, okay, who are the, like, local neighborhood papers? Who's the person who's going to run Neighborhood Watch, essentially? You know, as you probably know, Everybody's handing out 3D printed whistles. But it was. It was just as important to, like, learn the name of that lady down the hall that I've, like, lived next to for six years, but haven't ever just, like, knocked on the door. And I think making those connections are what allowed Minneapolis to resist in the way that it did, because it really was. I think the Atlantic described it not just, like, as leaderless, but leader full. You know, where it's just like, hey, block by block, building by building, people were really mounting an oppressive resistance to wildly overarmed federal agents with very little trigger discipline.
- [08:20]
Alison Stewart
Why do you think it happened in Minneapolis?
- [08:23]
Dessa
You know, okay, Alison, if you and I were talking off air, you know, I'll say this. I want to make room for people of all kind of political stripes. No matter what you think about immigration, this ain't the way to do it full stop, right? So no matter what your concerns are, this isn't the solution. That said, I think that there's a strong argument to be made that Trump personally had an axe to grind with our governor, Tim Walls, right, who had been, like, pretty well liked as a vice presidential candidate. And we're a crazy blue city, right? So I think that there was an opportunity there to send a message. And I think that Minneapolis said, nah, message not received. Like, return to sender.
- [09:06]
Alison Stewart
Why did you go ahead and write that essay for Mother Jones?
- [09:12]
Dessa
I wrote it in part because I think that, like, the surreality, if that's a word of how it felt on the ground was hard to communicate by visitors to our city. You know, so when Joshua, who Joshua Williams is here playing keyboard with me, and he texted me right away when things started popping off, like, do you have people who need groceries? I got it. I'm running, you know, I'm running out. Tell me where, you know, what. What errands I can run. It was such, like a text based friend resistance. And I think in some ways it's helpful to say, like, hey, it isn't. It's likely that another city will be in the same position. So best practices might be helpful to share. But also, personally for me, like, there's a sex shop who, like, turned into local neighborhood heroes because they collected so many donations. So they called their store, like their actual retail shop. They called it Diaper Mountain for a while because it was just taken over by. Yeah, the sex shop isn't usually going to kick it with the Second Amendment folks. Right? They're not natural partners or friends, and they're not going to go grab beers. But when the threat was serious and sufficient, those people will become part of a shared resistance. Together, they're their compatriots, even if they're not their friends. And so to me, the biggest reminder was, like, engage in conflict responsibly because you will need to link arms with people who you don't like in serious scenarios.
- [10:39]
Alison Stewart
So the last song we're gonna hear is a throwback, Dixon's Girl. It came out in 2010. Do you remember your state of mind when you were writing this song?
- [10:50]
Dessa
Oh, man, I was so green. I recorded this one so many times. I recorded it in my kitchen. I didn't understand soundproofing yet, so it was just like an echo chamber, you know, And. And I remember doing it and a friend had helped to engineer it. Shout out Jesse Green, now a violinist, occasionally with the Foo Fighters. She was pressing record and it turned out bad. Like eight times in a row. And I felt so embarrassed. And she went, honey, this is the job. Now you know, now that lousy take is over, we can start the next one. And that has stayed with me to this day.
- [11:20]
Alison Stewart
Do I know? Do I need to know who Dixon is before I hear the song?
- [11:23]
Dessa
You can't know who Dixon's is because I changed his name so as not to out him.
- [11:30]
Alison Stewart
All right, this is Dessa. She's going to perform Dixon's Girls from her debut album, A Badly Broken Code. Dessa, take it away.
- [11:38]
Dessa
Thanks, Alison.
- [11:58]
Oh, someone taught your walls to talk but if they ask me I ain't heard a thing Back to the wall, Back to the fall Back to the giant board Back to the wall Back to the fort Back to the giant board Back to the wall Back to the 4. Back to the giant Boy again There was a snowstorm in Jackson when you and I met at a club called St. Sebastian's but the sun said something different I remember thinking that I didn't have a shot at Mississippi Television told us which roads they were closing There goes a rap show and everybody knew you as the wife of a famous man Everybody who knew said there goes Dixon's girl again Even the wall a lean closer when she plays the piano real slow hadn't met so many women in this business that I really like like, like but you could hold a little liquor you could hold a conversation you could hold your own mic and even that night I learned the truth about your man you gotta be big to treat pretty girls bad it's not much but my money's on you it's not much but my money's on you it's not much but my money not much but my money not much but my money My money's. Well I heard from the rest of the world you're in trouble Bad news moves like fire that you fight on foam I'm too far away my well wishing can't touch you but I think of you still more than you might suppose Everybody want to see you with your head down want to hear you hit the high note Want to know if they can get you for a little less Girl, I don't I know how to say stones can fly. Had some hard goodbyes Call me up day and night Free drinks and bad advice.
- [13:52]
Thanks, wnyc.
- [13:55]
Alison Stewart
That was rapper and composer Dessa. Her latest EP is called Tough Call Camelot. On the way, singer songwriter Bristin Maroney talks about his recent album Jimmy. We'll also hear him play some music. This is all of it.
- [14:20]
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- [14:40]
Dessa
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- [14:42]
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