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Friday, January 25, 2013

For Real Toads: music prompt 'Dessa'


Marian and Izy have a love-in going on via computer, and today theyre lovin' the music of Minneapolis hip-hop artist Dessa, whose “music is intriguing, mysterious, beautiful, danceable”... Izy describes it as “lavish and highly addictive.” Marian agrees.

Dessa
via Wikipedia
They provided a sample of Dessa's music as a prompt for members and contributors at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, telling us how Dessa likes to take everyday sayings and bend them in her own way. It is this aspect of the artist I would like to get into today.

Better Never than Late

Dessa says “kiss the bottle, spin the girl”
and take the English language for a whirl—
now do your thinking 'way outside the box
if you don’t have a chicken, roast an ox.
blamestormings not like rocket science now
it’s better to know who instead of how.
if you’re between a hard place and a rock,
it’s better that you yell instead of knock.
the best things out since sliced bread would be grapes
pre-packaged in their skins like naked apes.
better never than late, they often say
(say those who don’t know nighttime from the day)

7 comments:

Hannah said...

"the best things out since sliced bread would be grapes
pre-packaged in their skins like naked apes."

Ha!!! I love that, Kay!! This is great!

Marian said...

kay, i love this. just love it!
i wanna hear you rapping!
this couplet especially i really dig:
"if you’re between a hard place and a rock,
it’s better that you yell instead of knock."

Susan said...

Thank you for this bit of linguistic and reality play! I noticed the spin the girl phrase but went right past it into her repetitions. This is where her art begins to be unique, though, in these absurdities. Nice!

Susie Clevenger said...

Oh my gosh! You nailed it!! I so would love to hear you rap it. You go girl!!

Kerry O'Connor said...

I'm so glad you went the route of inverted idioms.. This is so entertaining. I really wanted to come up with something clever for my poem too, but who could beat:

if you’re between a hard place and a rock,
it’s better that you yell instead of knock.

Priceless!

Margaret said...

Better never than late ... I just love that! You rocked this challenge.

Unknown said...

Blamestorming... brilliant!

I didn't have time to write to this prompt. I did listen, however to some of Dessa's performances while I was painting. She is a powerhouse.