by RAF KATIGBAK

The first thing that you notice about New York-based artist and performer Tara De Long is how calm and quiet she is in person. But make no mistake, the girl with the serene, almost shy, Jacksonville, Illinois-bred demeanour is the same Tara De Long that put out the angry, industrial, booty-shaking musical manifesto You Do the Math in 2003, on which she spits witty, vitriolic freestyles about everything from plastic surgery to fast food and conspicuous consumption. It’s the same Tara De Long who once, in Mexico City, filled a piñata of George Bush’s head with psychotropic pills and invited the crowd to bash away, the same Tara De Long who made Rolling Stone’s list of top censorship issues of the ’90s when the NYPD forced her to cancel her 1999 performance entitled Fuck the Police, the same Tara De Long that gets her back-up dancers to bust out crazy choreographed moves dressed like monkeys and half-eaten burritos.

Mirror: When did you start rapping?

Tara De Long: When I was in eighth grade. My friend used to beatbox in basketball practice. And we would freestyle. Then when I came to New York to study theatre, I started to freestyle. I don’t know, it was in me. I could make shit up. I started to write... I guess it was poetry at the time. I somehow got invited to do a poetry reading with this woman, Cheryl Boyce Taylor—who actually ended up being Phife Dog from A Tribe Called Quest’s mom—was like, “You’ve got to put music to this. Just do it.” Shortly after that, I met Snax here in New York and started bedroom productions, and the rest is history.

M: I hear your live shows are off the chain. Do you use some of your theatre experience?

TDL: Oh yeah! It’s crazy. It depends who I have involved, and there are always costumes and props. Every time, I try to do something special. I never repeat the same show. It’s just not my style. I’m going to be bringing two dancers that have moves. I have a hype man coming and sometimes I have a shot girl.

M: A shot girl?

TDL: Sometimes we have dancing chilli pepper costumes—those might be coming to Montreal. Because of the “Big Butt Daniela” track on the album, I’ve had a lot of dancing foods come out. My friend does the costumes—a half-eaten burrito, French-fry shorts, we had one girl that was a Cinnabun. Years ago, I was dressed up as a Republican with a suit, then I stripped it off and I was a Hooters girl underneath, and I was giving chicken wings at the bar. This new tour is called Buy Till You Die, so we started off the show in business suits. By the end of the song, we had stripped off and I was dressed like a Miami hoochie, which is not really my style… we are bringing a lot of things to Montreal. You’re going to see the monkeys.

M: Did you say monkeys?

TDL: Monkey costumes.

M: Right. That would be great, if you released live monkeys on the crowd.

TDL: I know! But the dancers do a real good job.

With A Boy Named Su and DJ Lynne T at Casa del Popolo on Saturday, Nov. 26, 9 p.m., $5

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