When she listens to the radio, Me’Shell NdegéOcello sometimes wonders why she rarely hears her own music.

“I’m sure in the back of my mind I think, ‘Why can’t my songs get on the radio?’ But to quote Dead Prez, the enemy is supposed to hate it, so I’m OK with it” she said with a laugh. “I listen to the radio now, I feel like I’m in good company. I’d rather not be there.”
By NdegéOcello’s definition, “the enemy” comprises those more concerned with commerce than art, those who require compromise for radio rotation or a spot on an MTV countdown. And NdegéOcello will not compromise her musical vision. For the past 10 years, she has skirted easy categorization, producing innovative albums filled with personal, penetrating lyrics mixed with liberal doses of jazz, funk, soul, world music, and hip-hop.

While this has made her a critic’s favorite—her last two albums, 1999’s BITTER and last year’s COOKIE: THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL MIXTAPE, were included on many best-of lists for their respective years—she has never achieved mainstream commercial success, save for a one-off 1994 duet with John Mellencamp on a cover of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night.” But NdegéOcello isn’t preoccupied with having her name mentioned alongside Ashanti or Beyoncé, or seeing her albums nestled in the upper reaches of the Billboard charts.

“I just do what I do, and I feel very blessed,” she said during a recent telephone conversation. “I feel good when I create. I just make music, and hope that it’s the best I can get from myself. At the end of the day, so long as I’m happy, it doesn’t matter. Some people might consider that arrogant, but all I can hope for is to be creative, and to have something to express.”

NdegéOcello—who will perform at the Hatch Shell Sunday as part of the Boston Globe Jazz & Blues Festival—has never had problems finding something to express, whether discussing the remnants of a shattered relationship on “Wasted Time,” homophobia on “Leviticus: Faggot,” or the priorities of a black community in crisis on “Dead Nigga Blvd. (Pt. 1).”

She has always been open about her politics and social conscience, as well as her sexual identity as a woman who loves women, although she has never restricted herself to dissecting love and lust strictly from a lesbian viewpoint.

In the early 1990s, she received a lot of attention as one of the first artists signed to Madonna’s Maverick Records, and with that association came big expectations. NdegéOcello had a minor radio and video hit with “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night),” but wider public success never came. Her sexuality certainly turned off some, as have her provocative songs, which require listeners to do more than just nod their heads. Still, she has never succumbed to the myopic parameters the industry and some audiences demanded of black artists.

“There’s so much more to me than being defined by other people’s issues. I certainly understand the importance of being of color, and what comes with that historically, but I’m really clear, too, that that is not my motivation,” NdegéOcello, 34, said. “I’m not invested in being a ‘black artist.’ I look at people like Jimi Hendrix who never had a black audience or Bob Marley who had a very diverse audience. Dwelling on race distracts me from the real issues at hand, so I try to let that go.

“Everyone’s got their ‘ism-schisms,’” NdegéOcello said, borrowing a phrase from Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up.” “So I just made a choice that, cool, if that’s your thing, you need to work that out with yourself.”

While her solo albums have faltered commercially, NdegéOcello is always creating. She has worked with such diverse artists as the Rolling Stones, Chaka Khan, and Talib Kweli. She played the popular all-female music fest Lilith Fair, and jammed with the Funk Brothers in “Standing in the Shadows of Motown,” a documentary about the studio musicians who helped shape the classic Motown sound. She performed on last year’s “Red Hot + Riot” CD, a tribute to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and collaborated with Roy Hargrove on his jazz/hip-hop fusion “Hard Groove.”
NdegéOcello is currently working on her fifth album, which she hopes to release later this year. Because of disappointing sales—the music business, after all, is first and foremost a business—NdegéOcello does not expect Maverick to renew her contract.

“This is probably my last record, and I’m going to thank them,” she said. “I’m very sincere in my thank you to them because they’ve given me the opportunity to do what I love. It had its bumps and bruises, but at the end of the day, they were the patrons who allowed me to make the music that I’ve made.”

Karen Lee, NdegéOcello’s publicist at Warner Bros., which owns Maverick, says the label “will not discuss contractual situations regarding its artists. They are happy with Me’Shell, and she is a prestigious artist to have on the label.”
Should NdegéOcello end her 10-year relationship with Maverick, it won’t damp her desire to make music, she said. Never one to look in the past, she considers herself an “in-the-now kind of person,” content to concentrate on her present life and music.

“I don’t think of myself as an easily packaged commodity. I’ve just tried to make music—or maybe I’m a little highbrow, and I was trying to make some art,” she said. “I’ve defined a purpose for my life, and I feel more at ease than I ever have. You can’t make everyone happy, and this is a fleeting experience, so I just want to do the best I can.”

— Renee Graham

That was a very good interview. I'd encourage everyone to support Me'Shell. She is a truly great artist.

I definitley had labelled her Cookie THEE best album of 2002. I had it hangin on my wall in my room under that title. I never had bought her stuff until i saw the album cover which made me curious...

She is definitley one of us, a real person not all out there like nobody can touch them or if she doesnt have any emotions.

paisleypark4 said:

DITTO. That was my favorite album of the year.. possibly the last 5-10 years! It's the album Prince tried to make with TRC. (ok, bring on the flames)

The two Basement Jaxx tracks are great.

IF YOU LOVE PRINCE, YOU SHOULD ALSO LOVE ME'SHELL. PLEASE GO OUT IN GET COOKIE. YES, INDEED, THE BEST ALBUM OF 2002! HANDS DOWN! AS CRITICS PUT IT: "THIS IS THE ALBUM THAT PRINCE SHOULD HAVE MADE YEARS AGO!!"

She is so underrated. Peace Beyond Passion is my favorite.

If I'm not mistaken Meshell also thought Bitter
would be her last album for Maverick 4 years ago, when
the powers that be gave her crap over that album not
being commercial enough.

The best interview I read with Meshell as the subject was
conducted...I'd say either before Bitter or sometime after.
It was much more in depth, much longer, and revealed a lot
about her as a person and artist. I can't remember what
the name of it was, but I'll try to dig it up from
somewhere on my PC.

Supernova said:

I had that ine save d to..I think it was an L.A. weekly interview..I had it save d to but cant find it anymnore--Ill try...I think I got it from u...it discussed the Bashir namechange etc...she was with her girl shoppin etc..very deep.

rdhull said:

try http://www.freemyheart.com under "museum"

rdhull said:

---> http://www.laweekly.com/i...-hardy.php

actually, that interview is almost 2 months old.

nice copy & paste from freemyheart though