In House With Dessa: The MC/Singer on Doomtree's 'No Kings,' Hip-Hop Homophobia and Not Being 'Feminem'

Damon Dahlen, AOL

In House is AOL Music's series in which we welcome artists into our offices to play some music, chat with our staffers and, generally, just hang out. For our latest visit, Spinner sat down with Minneapolis singer and rapper Dessa to discuss her career, her new album with Doomtree, 'No Kings,' and her views on homophobia and feminism in hip-hop.

"It's like a very steep incline on a snowy afternoon with a very strong headwind."

According to Dessa, that's how difficult it is to describe her sound -- a hyper-literate mixture of singing and rapping over both driving beats and a jazz-influenced live band -- to someone who's never heard her before.

"I get the skepticism," the 30-year-old Minneapolis-based artist tells Spinner about people who don't understand her genre-blending style, at least on paper. "A lot of this s--- doesn't sound so cool to talk about. I could spend all day trying to pitch it and I feel like a used car salesman. It just feels gross. I'll give you two of what I think are my best tracks, and then you'll feel it and then we've got our answer."