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Basement grooves,
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“I’m the type of girl who always wanted to do music when I was younger,” says lascivious rapper Donzelle, the stage persona of Montrealer Roxanne Arsenault (radio listeners might know her as CISM’s Violette Vilaine). For the longest time, though, she was the proverbial eunuch at an orgy—DJing at Foufs, Casa and Cheval Blanc, working in record stores and hosting her radio show. Her first foray through the looking glass was Famulous, something of a goof-off with her brother Maxime. From that project, Arsenault held on to one tune, “Libido macro,” which pops up on Parle parle, jase jase, the impressive debut album she launches this week. That song’s title is a clue to the album’s common denominator. She doesn’t bark her rhymes, she purrs them coquettishly, fondling the French tongue of Quebec into funny and foxy positions, with liberal does of English and splash of Portuguese thrown in. “I guess it’s more instinctive,” Arsenault says of her material’s bedroom bent. “To be honest, I don’t plan things ahead. I’m a very motivated person, but not very ambitious. I’d never think of doing something because it would bring recognition and success. I give it all I have when I’m doing it, but it has to be for fun—fun for me and for all the people I’m working with. It was like, ‘Okay, let’s just go all the way. I’m gonna wear the sexiest clothes in my wardrobe. I’m going to do whatever I want on stage and show off my moves.’ “I’ve always considered myself a feminist. I work for a feminist artist-run centre, I’ve always been for equal rights. I listen to a lot of really dirty rap made by guys, and I love it, DJ Assault and all that stuff, but I think it’s lacking women doing the same thing. But I didn’t want to do the Lil’ Kim thing. Even though I’m playing the sexy card on stage, I don’t think it’s that sexy at the end of the day. It’s not frightening, that’s a strong word, but I don’t look like someone who you’re gonna go up to and say ‘hey baby’ to.” On the other hand, Arsenault hasn’t been shy about soliciting partners in her project. Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux of Sexyboy and Organ Mood was her primary musical collaborator, though Gonzales bumped out a track for her. Vocally, she rounded up the World Provider, Giselle Numba One, Omnikrom, numéro#’s Pierre Crube, Poney P. of les Georges Leningrad fame and more. There’s also South African rapper Spoek Mathambo, a MySpace connect, on “Zebra Kiss,” a back-and-forth affair, boy/girl, black/white and bilingual—“It’s all about contrasts on every level,” Donzelle notes. She took a come-back-to-my-place approach to recording Parle parle, jase jase. “Rather than go into a studio, we decided to rent really good mics and put them in my basement. My house is kitsch-themed, so my basement is like a chalet. It was an environment where we could actually chill out and be calm about it, and everyone came to the house over those five days.” The results are more impressive than one might expect from an act that only took root in the fall of ’06. “To have all these people who actually want to work with you, give you their time, their beats and raps, you kinda owe them, at least to do an album, and it has to be good. It has to look good, it has to be strong.” CD LAUNCH AT LA SALA ROSSA ON |
