DAMAG3 - TINY DESK CONCERT 2024 (Initial Thoughts)

I've seen the DAMAG3 - NPR TINY DESK 2024 SUBMISSION aka the song DOUBL3 TAK3 from this full concert like a dozen times in the past 10 days it's been out. This is my first reaction to the full concert.

Here's a link to the full concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsn2nePMhFQ

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"Videography by @roseflowerrecords" - is she signed? I'm only about 5 songs, 2 interviews deep into her music, a pretty new fan, so I don't know...
I googled "rose flower records" and found that "ROSEFLWR is a growing community of independent artists, musicians and creatives." Oh! That's cool! So it's a collective, people working together! Oh yes. I like that. Much more than a stiff, hierarchical record label.
I might have looked this up before, I have a feeling that I have...

First song is G3NOCID3. I have heard it before at least once, on YouTube, but I don't really remember much about it.
The message hits so deep, OMG! In the first verse she's giving us the definition of a genocide and... well, see for yourself:

Can you define genocide? Hol' up I can

First you classify, then you symbolize them

Dehumanize, organize then polarize the other demographics

Preparation, ducks in a row before they get to quackin'

Step seven, exterminate the fuckin' masses

The final step is to deny that it ever happened

And there you have it

You a bystander in a crisis

Sacrifice my life so you can get by

With an identity that's just like mine

Human, I'm just like you is

Why you abusive?

I made it out the grave

And they wonder how I did it

So, the phases of genocide are to first classify which group of people you want to kill off. Then you symbolize and dehumanize them - you talk about them like they're not fellow human beings, but merely an abstract concept. Lets say the group you'd like to exterminate was people who go jogging same time every morning no matter the weather or temperature outside, for example. You'd try and find arguments that make them seem "not human" and then color the truth a little to form arguments against them, like "they don't feel cold the way the rest of us do" or "it's not normal to want to go and voluntarily run in a blizzard". Mix lies into your truth to make their behavior and mindset seem crazier. Make up scientific "facts" about how their ankles must be different from ours because they never seem to slip on ice and break them, etc. Make them "The Other" and us "The Normal Ones", make the people you're talking to identify with the normal ones and ostracize the others. Make sure you have a solid plan for the upcoming steps to move fast, before the people who go running every morning have a chance to talk and affect the minds of the public. Then kill them off and then deny it ever happening, that it was all an accident and you couldn't stop it from happening.
I would make such a powerful supervillain... But I choose to be good.

Her delivery was so captivating I was frozen in place until she started the screaming vocals and I knew I needed to hit pause and write something.
I know she used to be a metalhead before becoming a rapper, and it shows. Her screams aren't like... earth-shatteringly good. But they're still pretty good. And I've heard her scream better than she does here.

Then she goes onto the next song, without yet telling what it's called. I don't think I've heard the second song before. The internal rhymes are great, though, and that flow! I wish I knew the song title so I could google the lyrics and try to break down the rhyming...
My jaw dropped and I was just staring the whole first verse... Oh my gosh... I need to do a Deep Dive into her music soon, don't I? :D I had a couple of other artists lined up before her, but... This can't wait. This is music that should be blowing up right now. I know I'm only a year into hiphop, I'm still quite a newbie and might not know shit about the genre yet, but... At least to me, this is something I've never heard before. She's one of a kind, I cannot think of anyone to compare her to, who would be like a "if you like DAMAG3, you might like...". No one. I bet someone who would know more about rap than me could think of rappers who have similar flows and such (but I can't), but there's also the fact that she's trans, she's making political songs about being trans (I believe it's called "conscious hiphop") and other topics, she's hecking talented and shows it, BUT her hooks are also catchy as hell, her songs are absolute bangers. WHY ARE THEY SLEEPING ON HER??
Also, this song had those better screams I was talking about.
And I didn't even mention her beats yet, but they're so good as well. First one had quite dark and low-pitched sounds on it, this one was... well, metal.

Third song is called Closed Doors... Or, probably CLOS3D DOORS. I haven't heard it before. Beat is kinda lo-fi and a bit jazz-y, which is an interesting choice, different from her other songs. Loving the versatility. If all the songs of an artist sound the same, it gets boring real quick.
Her rapping on this is more... conversational. Like she's just talking to us, and it happens to rhyme a lot.
How the featuring artist Cam Hayden entered, that was smooth :D She was like, "yo, can I... start over?" or sth and they talk back and forth a bit and then Cam starts his verse. He's very soft spoken. His voice and flow are like made for this beat, they go so well together. I think he might be freestyling his verse? 
I'm not sure if DAMAG3 was as well...
I found the lyrics on Genius, I doubt anyone typed them out from the video in the past 11 hours it's been out? There are some question marks on them, so it is possible, but... I don't think so. I think they just made it seem real smooth and conversational... That, or DAMAG3 has some very enthusiastic fans, which is awesome. More people need to hear her stuff, I'm glad to see she has fans pushing her music.

Fourth song is called CONS3QU3NC3S. Again, her flow was so good I just COULDN'T stop her mid-verse. I'm contemplating whether I should have watched this and not write about it... But I REALLY want to support her, and this is my small tiny way of doing that. And something for myself to look back on.
There was another verse by Cam, and again, it seemed freestyled, but I don't think it was, since DAMAG3 was doing adlibs and doubling the vocals at points. That's just Cam's delivery. And I like it. Like I've said before, relaxed cadence hasn't been my thing, but... Now I have two exceptions to the rule (Blimes and Cam), and I think through them, I'm gonna get more into that kind of hiphop more than I have before... As a metalhead the aggressive and fast delivery is still more my thing, but... I'm starting to get this as well. I like Cam.
In the end, DAMAG3 said they improved?! Wow. So it was at least partially freestyled? Can't be all of it, they rapped in unison near the end, that can't be a verse coming from two different brains, can it? The flow and the atmosphere in the room was awesome, but... I don't believe in mind reading.

I don't know what the fifth song (8:30) is called but that was a... shift. :D Beat is still kinda lo-fi, but the lyricism is different from CLOS3D DOORS and CONS3QU3NC3S.
This one's referencing her other songs! There were bars like "No, hold up, wait" and "What happened?" in the exact same delivery as in the songs DOUBL3 TAK3 and WHAT HAPP3N3D?
She even sung a couple notes in the end, I don't think I've heard her sing before. She sounded ok. Rapping is definitely her strong suite, but screaming and singing are not bad either. She's a force to be reckoned with...

Sixth song is GRAV3. I've heard it before. It has a music video. It's progressive, in the prog rock/metal sense, it doesn't follow a normal verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure.
I think few months from now, this will be my favorite DAMAG3 song. Because of the prog aspects. I listen to a lot of prog metal and I prefer when other genres step outside their own boxes as well and do something interesting and evolving. If I can sing along to the entire song after the first listen, it might be a good song, but I will get bored with it quite soon. Where as prog songs, I can listen to it dozens of times and my brain keeps on finding new things in it or not remembering how the flow/melody continues, which keeps those songs interesting much longer.

Seventh song is PRISON and I recognized it immediately. I love this song, it's currently one of my favorites from DAMAG3. Original version has Gao the Arsonist featuring in it, we'll see what they do with this version, since I don't think Gao's in the studio. Will DAMAG3 rap Gao's verse, will they play a playback, will they skip it...
They played it as playback, DAMAG3 doubled the vocals on one of the bars, and then fixed her makeup 😂

Next song I recognize as well, it's called LOV3. It's maybe the happiest DAMAG3 song I've heard, sonically. But it's still good. Sympathetic and cute.
The featuring artist Raine Stern has such a pretty voice <3 I googled her and she was on The Voice, season 20, and got eliminated in the Knockout rounds, whatever that means. I haven't watched the show in a long time.
And Raine raps, too, with that adorable voice of hers? <3 She's so cute.
I actually got a little annoyed when DAMAG3 started adding her adlibs to Raine's verse 😂 I hate it when rappers do that, ruin a perfectly good melody with "yo"s and whatnot, random hypeman noises. Especially when the singer's voice is this delicate, it just gets drowned out under the hypeman stuff.
After hearing the speech in the end, I was wondering - are DAMAG3 and Raine together? Or just friends who make a lot of music together? I tried googling but didn't find an answer.

Then we get to DOUBL3 TAK3, which I've already heard (like I mentioned in the beginning of this post). It's another one of my current DAMAG3 favorites, an absolute banger. I've seen the music video maybe 10-20 times.
The flow switches are SO GOOD as well, oh my gosh... When I listen to this song, I can't just listen to it once, I have to listen 2-3 times in a row. :D
SO BADASS!!!

I don't know what the song after DOUBL3 TAK3 is called, but the beat is different again! It's very dance-y and pop-y... And then it changes about halfway. And her flow matches both of the beats so well, gooooooooddd!! All I can do is sit and admire, trying to keep my cool. :D I got chills.

I'm gonna be returning to this live a lot in the future, this is amazing ❤