Meshell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocellois an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations. She has been credited for having "sparked the neo-soul movement."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSoul Singer
Date of Birth29 August 1968
CityBerlin, Germany
CountryUnited States of America
I find myself wanting to make music at the dining room table or in the bedroom - I'm kind of a mobile writer, so I sort of move around the house. But the attic is definitely where I can make the most noise. While everyone on the lower floors screams 'Earthquake!' But no! It's just my bass!
Once you encounter people who are really testing the limits of kindness, that's when you start to build up a shield and close yourself down.
We're all just bags of bones and muscle and hormones; I'll never understand what makes our minds do the things we do. It's like that statue of the monkey holding a skull. We're trying to use a thing we don't understand to understand ourselves.
Any ideas of 'other' are complicated, and otherness is relative to personal ideas of 'normal.
It's hard being bisexual, omnisexual, multisexual, whatever you want to call it, when people have their agenda and expect you to just represent their agenda.
Sometimes people ask what it was like when I got to meet Mick Jagger, and I must admit that you just try and chill out and be your best self around anyone that you meet.
Music is like a lover that I can't commit to, but I seem to always find myself in bed with.
I'm pushing ahead on my own - you no longer need a large record company to make you a star.
It's funny, I think after you are a star like Sting and you no longer think you need any guidance or aid - it would be great to see those stars work with other songwriters.
I watch documentaries for information. I watch films to be entertained.
My father was a jazz tenor sax player. He played in a lot of big bands. So I had that sound around me all the time. The first record that really caught my ear was Clifford Brown's 'Brownie Eyes.' I grew up listening to John Coltrane and Illinois Jacquet. This is where I come from... I love improvisational music.