This might be old news to some, but i found this on Me'Shell
Ndegeocello's site http://www.bashirshakur.org. During an
interveiw for her excellent second release, she mentioned
the following:



"I wanted to be on Warner Bros. since the first Prince
record," Me'Shell said. "They had all these great artists,
and they seemed to care about the artistic part of it and
got lucky and knew how to market it. I have no fear of that
but...I don't know...There are no more Lenny Waronkers.
Now there are only people who count really well."



"I struggle to play the bass correctly, and all people care
about is whether I'm gay or this or that, none of which has
anything to do with music. I'm totally taken out of context.
I'm in this business where you can't be yourself. You have
to be this made-up..." She paused, focused and fired:
"Bottom line: Kurt Cobain died of bad management. OK? It was
like, 'He's a little high - but we can still put him on the
stage.' I don't want to ever have that happen to me."



When Me'Shell was being courted by the majors, two of the
labels after her were owned by artists - Maverick, which
she picked, and Prince's Paisley Park, which she passed on.
"The Prince label, I was very tempted. I mean, he's my idol.
My idol. But everything he's done on his label sounds like
him. That was a huge fear. And it's funny - I finally got
to meet him and hang with him for the first time last week,
when he did the David Letterman show. We hung out and went
to the studio together, and it was kind of scary. We think
on the same speed; we're always on the same kind of motion,
feel the same things. I just didn't want to end up like him.
Because he's an amazing musician, but I just can't figure
out why personally he seems so out. He doesn't sleep! It's
kind of frightening. I don't want my life to be like that."



Prince might not have been wrong when he started building a
wall around himself as protection against the business, the
media, the marketing machinery. But, like Michael Jackson
and Elvis Presley, he built his wall so high it cut off the
light.



"Oh yeah," Me'Shell said. "To me, from what I see, Prince is
in prison. He has created his own microcosm, and you can't
breathe in that atmosphere. I like the fact that I can go
down to Eighth Avenue and have a cup of coffee. I like being
able to talk to people; I think that makes me a better
writer. That's what makes me human. I would never trade
that for the world. I would not trade my life for the world."