21 minute read
MUSIC
MUSIC Missy D on a mission to make a global impression
Vancouver is now home to the emerging hip-hop artist, but the plan is to conquer the world after COVID-19
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by Steve Newton
Missy D remembers well the day her love affair with hiphop started.
She was an 11-year-old schoolkid in Zimbabwe, and her class was preparing for the year-end talent show. But they were learning to play the recorder, which isn’t the most thrilling instrument in the world.
“We pretty much sucked,” the 29-yearold rapper recalls on the line from her East Van home, “and we were all complaining to our music teacher, ‘Hey, you should be teaching us music that’s relevant to us.’ Hip-hop was a big thing at the time, and he somehow changed the curriculum for the next three months in preparation for that big talent show and was like, ‘Okay, you guys wanna study hip-hop, so we’re gonna study the history of hip-hop, from deejays to dancing to instrumentals to rapping.’
“And one of the assignments was to write a rap and perform it at that talent show. So we dropped the recorder—although I still have mine to this day—and I wound up writing a rap with one of my best friends. It came easy because I used to write poetry as a kid. I just fell in love with hip-hop that day.”
It was at that point that the budding rapper, born Diane Mutabaruka, transformed into Missy D. Missy Elliott was big at the time, and because of her look and how she performed at the talent show, people started to compare her to the American superstar. Before long, Mutabaruka’s new nickname, Missy D, had stuck.
Ten years ago, the Rwanda-born, Ivory Coast–raised artist moved to Vancouver to study at UBC and earn a bachelor of science degree. Since then, she’s worked to develop a musical style that fuses African flavours with hip-hop, rap, and R&B.
“I call it ‘rap & soul’,” she explains, “and the reason I say that is that I think it’s a fusion of hip-hop, rap, neo-soul, and soul music. That’s what you usually get when you’re coming to watch my band.”
Missy D has performed with the likes of Maestro Fresh Wes, Jully Black, Nomadic Massive, and Busty and the Bass. On Friday (February 19), she will take part in Winter Jazz with a show streamed live from Performance Works on Granville Island. She’ll be accompanied by her band— guitarist Vinay Lobo, bassist Dave Taylor, and drummer Ian Cardona—on a bill with DJ Kookum and dancer Sierra Baker.
“We’ve shared a few stages over the years,” Missy D points out. “I’ve had the chance to open up for Snotty Nose Rez Kids—they’re a hip-hop Indigenous group—a few times, and DJ Kookum usually deejays with them. She’s opening up, so it’ll be awesome to see this femme/ woman energy from the start to the end of the show. I think she’s gonna play some EDM, some hip-hop, some fusions of music that she enjoys, and then you get me in the second half, where I’m giving you the soul, jazzy, hip-hop, reggae, live-band aspect to the show.”
Last March, Missy D released the sixsong EP Yes Mama, which opens with the track “Paint”, an exploration of intergenerational “pain, trauma, catharsis, and healing through creativity”. A video for the song, compiled and edited by Gavin Hartigan, features contributions from visual artists Kimmortal, Matt Hans, Michele Jubilee, Samaneh, Kafiya Mudey, and Corrina Keeling.
Missy D reveals that a second video for “Paint”, featuring the art of Sofia Shamsunahar, will be released the day before her Winter Jazz gig. She hopes it will help cement her status as an emerging artist on the Vancouver music scene.
“The current goal I have this year is just grounding myself and ensuring that people know who I am and know what my music is about,” she says. “And the goal post-COVID is just to do more shows and to tour and to share the music with more people across oceans and across continents.” g
Born in Rwanda and raised in Ivory Coast, Diane Mutabaruka now perfoms as Missy D, a Vancouver rapper who draws on the best parts of old-school hip-hop, rap, and classic soul.
– Missy D
Missy D performs on February 19 as part of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society’s free online Winter Jazz program, presented in association with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
Crosby takedown of Bridgers proves truly pathetic
by Mike Usinger
At what point do you go from being one of America’s most idealistic original hippies to a miserably intolerant old fart? That’s a question Phoebe Bridgers might be rightly asking this week since David Crosby reminded the world he’s still using up valuable oxygen.
Folk music’s most famous mustachioed portable sperm bank was asked on Twitter what he thought of Bridgers’s February 6 appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Before we get to that, a quick recap.
The 26-year-old Bridgers finished off her second song on SNL, “I Know the End”, by doing her best to smash the living shit out of her Danelectro Dano ‘56 guitar. Said demolition, which included piledriving it into a dummy amp that shot fake sparks, wasn’t the result of her blowing a line on national TV, having her Sportsheets Unity Vibe Mini Vibrator malfunction, or being pissed that the bread on the backstage deli tray was two sizes too small for the imported European salami.
How to explain it, then? Um, have you been paying attention to, well, everything that’s gone on in the world over the past couple of years? Donald Fucking Trump. Black Lives Matter. COVID-19. #MeToo. California wildfires. And Vladimir Putin arresting Pussy Riot—again.
Who in their right fucking mind isn’t motherfucking angry? When Bridgers went full-on wrecking ball on her guitar, she sent a message to all of us: you are not alone.
It was as inspirationally cathartic as it was beautiful. Unless, evidently, your name happened to be David Van Cortlandt Crosby. The 79-year-old has been around long enough to remember when Pete Townshend was making Leo Fender weep on a nightly basis. So somebody asked him on Twitter what he thought of Bridgers channelling the spirits of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Courtney Love.
His response was swift and blunt: “Pathetic”.
And then, in case the message was somehow not clear, he followed that up with a series of double-down tweets.
Whether or not Phoebe Bridgers was successful in her SNL guitar demolition isn’t really the point. She’s suggested that we should expect a sacrificial burning next. Photo by Phoebe Bridgers/Instagram.
Some were of the mildly illiterate semiconfused variety: “They are not toys ...or props ...we who’ve played them for our whole lives try to treat the with respect.”
Others left one wondering not only if Crosby dreamed that he saw the whole thing, but weirdly had little idea what he was weighing in on. And also that he’s a hard-core Halloween hater: “I am told that wasn’t a very good night for her and she’s really quite good ...I could not see it or hear it then ...the skeleton costumes were kind of distracting as well ....the guitar thing was old , wrong , copy cat, looks angry , destructive , wasteful , pointless.”
Melissa Etheridge’s personal baby batter dispenser also seems somewhat chuffed that Bridgers had chosen to play punisher to a Danelectro Dano ‘56, as opposed to a 1958 Gibson Explorer: “Wasn’t even that good an axe,” Crosby tweeted. “It’s the Staged part that leaves me cold.”
That was followed up by a couple of digs at Bridgers’s work: “It’s [smashing guitars] what you do if you can’t write” and “I didn’t like it when men did it either ...it’s stupid drama ...poor substitute for talent .....”
Looking at things charitably for a second, one might suggest that Crosby’s disdain for guitar demolitions is rooted in deep-seated and miserable envy. You know what would look inarguably stupid? Crosby smashing a guitar in the middle of the Sleepy Time Tea anthem “Guinevere”. Or the sunsets-andSominex classic “Music Is Love”.
But you know what? Fuck that guy. Crosby’s primary reason for existing at this point in his life seems to be getting irate at everything from the goddamn kids swimming off the bow of his boat to the fact that Neil Young is spending his golden years plugging Daryl Hannah. So, instead, let’s pull things back to Bridgers. The unofficial narrative on her Saturday Night Live appearance is that the 26-yearold was plucked out of nowhere for the night, which was hosted by Canada’s newest national treasure Dan Levy. That slant isn’t entirely accurate—Bridgers has two critically acclaimed albums on her résumé and four 2021 Grammy nominations. But what’s more important is where she’s come from. As the previous decade drew to a close a new wave of young female artists began taking root in the American underground, Bridgers on the frontlines along with the likes of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Soccer Mommy, and Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner. At the risk of over-generalizing things, said artists tend to find a sweet spot between DIY folk and lo-fi rock. But what’s truly made their movement so vital and important is what Bridgers and her fellow warriors are saying in their songs. Think sonic exorcisms where every raw emotion, dark thought, and painful memory is there to be dragged into the light. Given the shitshow that this world has become, ask yourself who you can relate to more. Someone from a world where privileged boomers sit on their private yachts writing lines like “When I awoke this morning/Dove beneath my floating home/ Down below her graceful side/In the turning tide/To watch the sea fish roam.” Or a resilient broken-home byproduct whose breakout song, “Funeral”, had her confessing “I have a friend I call/When I’ve bored myself to tears/And we talk until we think we might just kill ourselves/But then we laugh until it disappears”? And who, without coming across as self-pitying, sounds like she means it when singing “Jesus Christ, I’m so blue all the time”? But back to what got us here: the guitar demolition. The Who’s Pete Townshend used to liken his destructions to an exorcism— a way to vent his frustrations with, well, everything. But he was never so disingenuous to suggest that his guitar sacrifices weren’t great publicity, especially during the band’s early years. Even if the demolitions themselves happened on the spur of the moment in a given show, in the larger picture it was calculated showmanship that got people talking. Given what we’ve learned from his Twitter feed, before Saturday Night Live, Crosby didn’t know Phoebe Bridgers from Regina Phalange. Bridgers’s career trajectory is headed in the opposite direction of Crosby’s, but she’s not quite a household name. Saturday Night Live is changing that. If you didn’t know who Bridgers was before her appearance, odds are pretty good you did afterwards. Only Bridgers knows for sure what her motivations were for trying to send her Danelectro Dano to a better place. (Suggesting that she’s the kind and caring sort who—like any good person—worries about the feelings of others, she reached out to the guitar manufacturer before her performance. Danelectro gave her their blessing, along with a warning that the axes embraced by everyone from Jerry Garcia to King Buzzo are notoriously hard to break.) And the great thing about where we find ourselves in 2021? She doesn’t have to answer to or explain herself to anybody. Not us. Not the thousands of Internet trolls who weighed in with comments where the weirdly sexist subtext was that breaking guitars is and should remain a man’s game. And certainly not David Fucking Crosby and his stupid fucking moustache. But as much as she doesn’t have to answer to or explain herself to anybody, that didn’t stop her from doing so on Twitter. When Crosby tweeted “Pathetic”, Bridgers responded with two words: “little bitch”. She might have added “miserably intolerant old fart”. But as sure as, Jesus Christ, we’re so blue all the time, Phoebe Bridgers needs zero advice on how she could be doing things better. And to prove that, consider her post-SNL performance words on Instagram. Bridgers put up a shot of her in mid-demolition, captioning it with “got some really great feedback from my performance ! next time I’ll just burn it and it will be more expensive”. The world’s no longer a boomer-run boy’s club. And it’s about fucking time. g
SAVAGE LOVE No easy answers for a collapsed COVID libido by Dan Savage b I’M A GAY guy living in New York in his late 20s. My boyfriend has really been emotionally impacted by the pandemic, having been a frontline worker. I think he is suffering from some mild depression or, at the very least, some intense anxiety, so I just want to preface this by saying I completely sympathize with what he’s going through. Before the pandemic, we had a really good sex life, but lately he hasn’t been interested in sex at all besides a few assisted-masturbation sessions. While I know that these aren’t usual times, I can’t help feeling rejected.
Normally, I would suggest opening up the relationship, for the sake of both myself and him, and I think that he might benefit from having sex with some guys where there isn’t an emotional investment. Of course, right now that isn’t an option. I want to be there for him, and we otherwise have a solid relationship, but this issue has been making me feel hurt. I’ve encouraged him to masturbate without me, but I do wish he could include me more in his sexual life. Do you have any other thoughts or advice?
- Thanks For Reading As much as I hate to give you an unsatisfactory answer—you aren’t satisfied with what you’re getting at home and you’re not going to be satisfied with what you get from me, either—the only way to find
Scan to confess
Losing friends to covid.
The Georgia Straight
Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.
Thank goodness not becoming sick and dying, but losing long time friends because I don’t strongly agree that covid is some scheme developed by the uber rich to control the population. covid has been exhausting for everyone, I don’t feel the need to eat, sleep, and shit conspiracy theories. Everyone runs their own race I guess.
Reciprocation
Why is it my Mom only calls when she wants something, I am the one always initiating contact. I’ve invited her to our home and she always has excuses, but will go places with my brother. So, I have stopped asking and the contact has just become an obligation instead of a relationship.
Our rst Valentines together
I wanted it to be special. I made a reservation at the restaurant where we had our fi rst date. But when I told my gf, she told me that she and her friends had a tradition of a non-romantic get-together on Valentines Day. So I cancelled the reservation and we went to this non-Valentines Valentines - us, her best friend and her bf, and my gf’s best guy friend. After we broke up, I found out that my gf was actually in an open marriage with this “best guy friend”. I was the only one not let in on the secret. The non-romantic get-together was so that he didn’t feel left out on Valentines Day.
No Valentime
I really can’t handle thinking of all the people having sex. It’s been a year for me because of this situation...
Visit to post a Confession
Frontline workers have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s no big shock that the fallout has included depression and anxiety. Photo by Mulyadi/Unsplash. out whether his loss of libido is entirely pandemic-related, TFR, is to wait out the pandemic and see if your sexual connection doesn’t rebound and/or if opening up the relationship is the right move for you guys as a couple.
But if you suspect the collapse of your boyfriend’s libido has more to do with what he’s witnessed and endured as a frontline worker than it has to do with you or your relationship, TFR, therapy will do him more good than sleeping with other guys or masturbating without you. Urge him to do that instead.
b MY DAD IS dying. He had a stroke two days ago and is in a coma with no brain function. My aunt (his sister) is trying to make me feel guilty for not traveling to see him. Even though I’m pregnant and high risk. I would have to take an airplane across the country and multiple public buses to see him. I would have to risk my baby’s life to say goodbye to a man I love with all my heart. She insists that if I don’t, I didn’t love my dad.
I’m heartbroken. I keep calling his hospice and they set the phone next to his head so I can talk at him. He was so excited about my pregnancy, and I know he would not want me to risk it. But now not only am I grieving my father, I feel guilty and selfish. Am I right to be angry? My aunt’s brother is dying. She’s sad. Everyone is sad. But this is not the first time she has used guilt to try and control others in moments of trauma.
- Crying On My Abdomen There has to be someone in your life who would be willing to step in and tell your aunt to go fuck herself. If there isn’t, COMA, send me your aunt’s phone and I’ll do it.
P.S. I’m so sorry about your dad—who is already gone—and I’m sorry your kid won’t get to meet their grandfather. And you have every right to be furious with your aunt for giving you grief when you have all the grief you can handle right now. Don’t get on that plane. And if your aunt never speaks to you again, COMA, just think of all the guilt trips she won’t be able to drag you along on in the future.
b I AM A 26-year-old heterosexual girl. After four years with my boyfriend (and
with the pandemic on top of it), we started to experience sex issues. It is mainly from my side; I (almost) never get satisfaction out of sex. I’m always enthusiastic about having sex but I don’t feel “involved”, and I could literally be solving math problems in my head while we have sex. As the situation is frustrating, I talked to him and suggested that more foreplay could help me stay engaged and enjoy the sex. He was puzzled by my “need for foreplay” to reach orgasm but committed to trying. However, after minimal initial effort, he stopped trying and the limited foreplay ceased. He probably got frustrated by the amount of time I require to “warm up”, and his efforts dried up and he began rebuffing me whenever I attempted to initiate sex.
Recently, after he turned my sexual advances down yet again, I decided to masturbate. The result was him being upset and taking offense at my “unpleasant behavior”. Should I feel guilty about masturbating when he turns me down? I am hurt and I very frustrated by this situation.
- Masturbation Alone Turns Harsh
Allow me to decipher the message your pussy is desperately trying to send you, MATH, as you lay there doing math problems while your boyfriend treats your body like it’s a Fleshlight: “Wouldn’t you rather masturbate alone and in peace than ever have to fuck this asshole again?” Everyone requires a little foreplay; women require more than men do; it takes women longer to get off than it takes men (five minutes, on average, for men; 13 minutes, on average, for women); and very few women can climax from vaginal intercourse alone.
Any straight guy who isn’t willing to do the work—provide the necessary foreplay and come through with the nonPIV stimulation or concurrent-with-PIV stimulation required to get a woman off— doesn’t deserve a girlfriend. DTMFA.
b I’M A 53-YEAR-OLD gay man and I’ve never been hornier in my life. I really need to guzzle about a quart of jizz right now. I haven’t been dating anyone, and the COVID isolation has intensified my loneliness, but it’s the lack of D that’s driving me to distraction. The last time I sucked a dick was the afternoon Los Angeles began its first shutdown.
Here’s the thing. I just had the first dose of the vaccine and the second is scheduled in a couple weeks. Is it safe to suck someone’s dick who has also had the vaccine? Everything I found on google only talks about how the vaccine may affect pregnant women. What about us cum whores?
- Got the Fever for the Flavour Where have you been? I predicted at the beginning of the pandemic—based on what little we knew about transmission at the time—that we were entering a new golden age of glory holes. Two months later, the New York City Health department was recommending “barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close faceto-face contact”, a.k.a. glory holes—and that was the harm-reduction advice given by health professionals long before vaccines became available.
Seeing as you’re vaccinated, your risks are going to be lower. But to play it safe, build your own glory hole, invite a guy over, tell him to keep his mask on, and avoid close face-to-face by staying on your knees on the other side of that barrier.
b I WANTED TO second something you wrote about kinks last week. You said—I’m paraphrasing here—that kinks are hardwired but some people do manage to acquire them. My husband is into rope bondage. I gave it a try a couple of times at the very start of our relationship, and for whatever reason, being tied up didn’t work for me. We had great vanilla sex and he had a small stable of bondage boys on the side.
A few months after the lockdowns began, he started to worry about getting rusty. I offered to let him practise on me. I don’t know what changed, Dan, but when he tied me up for the first time in a decade, I was so turned on! At first I thought it was the pot edible, but we’ve done it a bunch of times since, times when I wasn’t high, and I’ve enjoyed it just as much or more. Now I’m the one pestering him to go get the ropes. I somehow acquired his kink and he couldn’t be happier!
- Restrictions Of Pandemic Enables Development P.S. I would’ve called in to share our “pandemic sex success story” for your podcast but my mom and both sisters all listen to the show and they really don’t need to know. g
Thanks for sharing, ROPED! g
Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage. Website: www.savagelovecast.com.
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