Change text size

Larger Smaller

Click to close

enlarge

God-Des and She got the audience fired up at the Frequency. -

print  ::  comment

loading ratings...

Shots all around, God-Des and She are back in town. Tuesday night at the Frequency, the former Madison hip-hop and soul duo returned from New York City for a short and fun set of songs, many off their new album, "Stand Up."

God-des got her start as a rapper in Madison, where she hooked up with soul singer She (aka Tina G.) to fill out the sound into a duo. They moved to New York City together four years ago to reach a wider audience, and their big break came with a performance of their sexual tutorial rap "Lick It" on the third season finale of Showtime's "The L Word."

God-des makes no bones about being a "white dyke Jewish rapper from Wisconsin." She celebrates it as her identity and mentions it frequently, both onstage and in interviews. And therein lies the trickiness of identity politics: Her identity as a rapper and as a person is now narrowly defined within the bubbles of "white person," "lesbian" and "Jew." She doesn't expand on that identity in her lyrics, which are straightforward, subtlety-free anthems to sex, relationships and standing up for what you believe in.

When she raps, "Today is different / I'm going to make change I'm going to pull up my straps / I refuse to be trapped," it makes for a feel-good party song, but it's an empty message without any soul-baring. She's missing the details and the specifics that make rhymes pop with vitality.

At one point she told the audience, "I made myself depressed for so long," and explained that she wanted to concentrate on positive, happy songs now. Nothing wrong with a happy song, of course, but a generic ode to "following your dreams" is a watery mix in comparison to the thick, spiked brew created by real-life stories of joy.

God-des fired out some clever rhymes in the catchy "Ja Da," easily the best song of the evening. The lines shot out fast and hot as she rhymed about herself as a lyrical drug: "Find me in your corner store / Keep you coming back for more / Make your pockets empty 'til you're poor poor poor."

"Ja Da" was one of the few songs Tuesday evening that showed real potential, and hopefully the duo will create more like it in the future.

God-des and She attack the songs with such enthusiasm that it almost makes up for what's lacking lyrically. The highlight was She's fierce, soulful singing.She pushed notes to the edge and growled a sweet accompaniment to God-des' raps. The audience in the backroom of the Frequency danced a booty-waving groove and chanted call-and-response lines all night. Shots and drinks got passed up to the stage for a warm hometown welcome to the performers.

The duo's main beatmaker, DJ Pain 1, deserves props for spinning a tight backup that flowed seamlessly. He and MC Starr opened the evening in style with a short set as the Fall Guys, and MC Starr summed up his collaborator's style best: "DJ Pain is not a cyborg. His fingers just move that fast! He's only a man."