ARUN RATH, HOST:
Think about how difficult it can be to organize an evening out with friends. You're busy. They're busy - conflicting schedules, babysitters. Well, consider the seven solo artists who sometimes get together as the band Doomtree.
DESSA: Making a Doomtree record is like planning a wedding for seven people because you do send out a lot of, like, save the dates, don't forget - RSVP to make this record.
RATH: Clearly, it was worth the effort.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEASTFACE")
DOOMTREE: (Singing) And I know where to go when I'm lost, where to cope, when I need a little hideout. But nothing new under the sun, so head up and get up and get on the run. So you the boogey man, huh? Yeah right. Where you at? I ain't scared. Bend prism in the dark, dilated, working with the moonlight. I can see who's hunting. Wherever I go, there I am, eyes wide open, not for nothing. Sucka headspin unitl it nod off, hyperventilated, mind eradicated. Boy, I'm lucky I made it. Little homie, be a boy.
RATH: Doomtree started putting Minneapolis on the hip-hop map 15 years ago. I spoke with two of the seven - Dessa and P.O.S. Their new album comes out on Tuesday. It's called "All Hands." And to make it, they say they had to get off the grid.
DESSA: We ended up sequestering ourselves in a series of cabins just to make sure that we weren't distracted by the city or by, like, ringing phones. So we did our best to get ourselves out of cell phone reception.
P.O.S.: A cabin that Dessa found on Twitter that didn't have finished walls and let all the bugs in. But...
DESSA: OK. In my defense, the crew was, like, hey, we need a cabin. And I found a cabin for free.
P.O.S.: No, no, no. You killed it. I was very happy with that cabin.
RATH: No, see, when I picture a cabin, I just - I go right to horror movies, you know, like "The Evil Dead" or something like that. What are the - describe the cabin that you guys were working in?
DESSA: Your imagination is too accurate, unfortunately, for the cabin that I found on Twitter. But it was really sweet. We were short cabin. And I tweeted, hey, anybody willing to let, like, seven rapping strangers stay in your cabin? And somebody on Twitter said, sure.
RATH: And you have a song on here called "Cabin Killer."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABIN KILLER")
DOOMTREE: (Singing) But it keeps genes hardy, so feed a fever, the winter we starve. Keep razoring the cheek, robin in the ribcage, braided in the street, hair down in the crib stay. Easy on the beat. Mouths get easier to feed. Meter's running, every minute got to matter. Move. I got a minimum to meet.
DESSA: This one was, like, a formative track on the record for me because I remember hearing the beat and saying, you know what? I don't really hear myself on this one. And then I heard the way that Mike...
RATH: That's Mike Mictlan?
DESSA: Mike Mictlan, yeah, rapped on that. And then a little dam broke inside my chest of, like, inspiration or competition or something. And I really wanted to, like, you know, claim my 16 bars on the track. And there's not any, like, one-upsmanship, but there's very much a drive to show and prove and come out as hard as all the other member of the crew are.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABIN KILLER")
DOOMTREE: Beamer and the Sim simma. The Vimmy, the semi, Petty bounty, any penny or any fedi. Homie, is you relevant? Let me get a piece. I'm going to tell it, develop it, sell it to the beast. Rolling in the breadbox, mayo spilling on the ceiling, bailing one eight seven.
P.O.S.: He's made me want to rap like him since I met him in 10th grade.
DESSA: Yeah. I think the secret weapon of Doomtree is feeling like maybe you're not good enough every time.
P.O.S.: I think him and Sims kind of came with it on this record as far as, like, we are professional rap pattern destroyers. Deal with it, kind of.
RATH: I'm speaking with Dessa and P.O.S. from Doomtree. Their new album is called "All Hands." A lot of hip-hop scenes make a big deal about, you know, their pedigree - where they come from. There's the Atlanta scene, Miami scene, Brooklyn, South Central. Do you care about sounding like Minnesota?
P.O.S.: I don't know if it's a matter of caring about sounding like Minnesota. We do. We do, I think, just happen to sound like Minnesota - Minneapolis. Whether it's the, like, atmosphere-inspired underground vibe or it's, you know, Prince or The Time, like, we've been soaking in it - and Dillinger Four and Husker Du and all of these bands, you know. I mean, I only listen to music from here - for a couple solid years of, you know, being a punk rocker, being like a hip-hoper, just being really proud of my city and knowing that I could get any style I was looking for around here. I think just being around such good, quality musicians for so long - it just, whether you're trying to sound like a scene or not, you just end up sounding like where you're fom, you know?
RATH: The song "Gray Duck" gets at that little bit, doesn't it?
P.O.S.: It does. I don't think people outside of here know even what that is.
DESSA: The childhood chase game that's called duck-duck-goose everywhere else in the country is called duck-duck-gray duck in Minnesota. And that's what it's actually called. So get with the program. So yeah, so we definitely - you're right. We titled that song as a tipped hat, like, to exactly where we come from. And everybody from Minnesota immediately knows - actually, no they don't because some of us don't even know that it's called something else elsewhere.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRAY DUCK")
DOOMTREE: (Singing) Closed the circuit skull full of white light, mouthful of ash. Sparks the pavement, dragging the chain, anchor's off, man, lost it again. Steady on, got to push through the rain. Weather in the veins, came for this, train for this. Made for this, pray they miss, duck. Duck, gray duck, gets up and running. Rest fall back like a bridge in London. Brand new brakes - I never touch them.
RATH: There aren't tons of hip-hop collectives. And I think, like, you know, a lot of bands break up because of egos. And hip-hop is something you think where there's a lot of big egos. Why is it you guys are able to make it work, where you just kind of drive each other harder instead of, you know, just getting into one-upsmanship?
P.O.S.: I don't know. I think that a lot of the first years of this crew - they were a lot rockier than I feel like they are now. And I think that kind of wanting to do it so bad and getting through some really tough times kind of made it easier to stick it out for, you know, such a long time that we've been at it.
RATH: You guys have been together since high school, right? Doing this since high school?
P.O.S.: Well, a lot of us have been friends since high school.
DESSA: And I think there's also sort of, like - there was a double-edged sword to the slow rate of commercial success, you know? I think if we'd gotten big and made a lot of money when we were 23 - I don't know if we would've been able to stay together. We were able to, like, acclimate to every step along the way. And when I joined the crew, you know, Stef said to me - I think what he said to everybody - which was this thing is friendship first. And it's music second. And it's money third. And I remember telling that to, like, my dad and him being, like, you know, have fun - good summer or whatever. That does not the foundation of a sustainable LLC sound like. But it worked.
RATH: That is P.O.S. and Dessa from the band Doomtree. Their new album is called "All Hands." You can hear few tracks on our website, nprmusic.org. Fantastic album and real pleasure speaking with both of you. Thank you.
P.O.S.: Thank you. This was really cool.
DESSA: Thanks, Arun.