Dessa

For the village in Niger, see Dessa, Niger.

Dessa
Dessa at the Doomtree Blowout in December 2010
Background information
Birth name	Margret Wander
Also known as	Dessa Darling
Origin	Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Genres	Indie hip hop, underground hip hop, alternative hip hop
Occupation(s)	Rapper, singer
Years active	2005-present
Labels	Doomtree Records
Website	Dessa on Doomtree.net

Dessa (born Margret Wander) is a rapper from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is best known as a member of the indie hip hop collective Doomtree. She is also a spoken word artist, radio host for Cities 97 and writer.

Education

Dessa went to Southwest High School. She attended the University of Minnesota, where she earned a B.A. in Philosophy. Before becoming an artist full-time, Dessa was a technical writer for a medical manufacturer.

Career

Entering music

Dessa started out writing spoken word poetry. A friend eventually convinced her to join the Minnesota slam poetry team. Her poetry was brought to the attention of MC Yoni, with whom she would go on to form the group Medida (along with Omaur Bliss and producer Ronin), her first foray into hip-hop. Yoni would be instrumental in shaping her understanding of hip-hop history, and later on would also be the first to introduce Dessa to the music of Doomtree, who unbeknownst to her lived in the house next door.

Doomtree

Initially drawn to their raw aesthetics and unique sound, Dessa forged a friendship with Doomtree. Soon after, she started dating P.O.S. Though they eventually ended their relationship, she was asked nonetheless to join the crew, and did so. Since 2005, Dessa has appeared on numerous Doomtree's albums, as well as on the other members' solo albums.

Dessa's debut solo EP False Hopes was released in 2005. Despite being only fifteen minutes long, it was still listed as one of the top local albums of the year by Minneapolis Star Tribune.

In the meantime, she completed and released a book of creative non-fiction titled Spiral Bound at the fourth annual Doomtree Blowout in 2008. In 2009, Dessa has published Spiral Bound on Doomtree Press, a seventy-page collection of fiction and poetry that is said to contain several moments of sublime clarity.

Dessa's first solo album A Badly Broken Code was released on January 19, 2010. The singles from this album are "Dixon's Girl" and "The Chaconne." The album displays Dessa's talents as a singer, rapper and lyricist within the fifteen tracks, and features production from Paper Tiger, MK Larada, Lazerbeak, Cecil Otter and Big Jess. The album art for A Badly Broken Code was designed by MK Larada.

In 2011, Dessa released Castor, The Twin.

Dessa is currently working on a new album that is to be released on Doomtree Records early 2012.

Side projects

Dessa is a founding member of The Boy Sopranos, an almost all-female a cappella group, with frequent collaborators Jessy Greene, Aby Wolf and others.

Dessa also teaches at the Institute of Production and Recording and the McNally Smith College of Music.

Discography

Solo

• False Hopes (2005)
• A Badly Broken Code (2010)
• Castor, The Twin (2011)

Doomtree

• False Hopes (2007)
• Doomtree (2008)
• FH​:​XV (False Hopes 15) (2009)
• Doomtree Standards Mixtape (2010)
• No Kings (2011)

Guest appearances

• Sims - "No Homeowners" from Lights Out Paris (2005)
• Kanser - "No D in Erogenous" from Kanser (2005)
• Paper Tiger - "Speedmetal" from False Hopes (2007)
• Mel Gibson and the Pants - "Bit of a Buzz" from Sea vs. Shining Sea (2007)
• P.O.S - "Low Light Low Life" from Never Better (2008)
• Paper Tiger - "Palace" "And the Camera" from Made Like Us (2010)
• Lazerbeak - "Bound" from Legend Recognize Legend (2010)
• Gayngs - "No Sweat" "Faded High" from Relayted (2010)
• p-teK - "This Bridge Is Burning for You" from Oh! What a Miracle! (2011)

Bibliography

• Spiral Bound (2009)

External links

• Dessa on Doomtree.net