The Language of My Story, An Interview with Meshell Ndegeocello

An Amazon Original Podcast Series:
music.amazon.com/podcasts/8e5...
Meshell Ndegeocello
As a prolific multi instrumentalist and poetic intellectual, Meshell Ndegeocello’s music weaves together sensual sentiments, spinning storytelling and activism into its own (sub)genre of soul. In this episode Adrian speaks with Meshell about the concept of feminism, language and her role in the evolution of Black music
An Amazon Original Podcast:
Invisible Blackness is a podcast that documents the development and evolution of racism in
America. This series analyses the Black consciousness of America with new historical parallels to the future and the past.
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[@DiabolikalFollikles]

"to be African American is to be African without memory and American without privileges." - James Baldwin.

[@samcloake2421]

I'm a white guy from the UK and this is really opening my mind up to so many issues. I came here becase I love Meshell's music. Incredible discussion!

[@egroovesoldschoolmusic7171]

What I love about Meshell Ndegeocello’s music is she speaks her mind through her music and talks about different subjects. She fixes Jazz with Funk and Soul and there’s Rock in there too along with other genres. She’s one who never got the credit she deserves making her music. She belongs right up there with Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Ledisi, Loren Hill, and other conscious artists who they give more credit than she gets. Meshell is another one who, no matter what time she’s in, she’s not a crowd follower. You’re the same way Adrian, thank God. You give your music an Oldschool flavor that I thought people would never do again, also, I know about all the Modern Funk and a lot of other Soul music that’s out right now either by Oldschool artists or Newschool artists who have learned from the Oldschool artists and are either creating music similar to what it was for us growing up or they are creating grooves of their own. Much love Adrian.

[@tonsarmedia9329]

She’s gotten loads of credit for the past 30 years.

[@omniscient7333]

That intro was powerful

[@DiabolikalFollikles]

Yes it is. MOS def is. 🖤

[@bridgetbarnett6423]

What a beautiful tribute and into!

[@janicescott-pair97]

Her talent is undeniable. 😊😊

[@o0R3stless0o]

My favorite Musician : Meshell Ndegeocello 🙏❤

[@thaxtonwaters8561]

Meshell is a angel amongst us.

[@gemmadidit4118]

... It's the wee hours of the morning and I have to stop listening to this because I feel the need to take notes and explore the references. This woman is my gateway drug. I can't get enuf if her.

[@TheKellie03]

I just love this woman!! From the day I was introduced to Me'Shell's music I knew we were in for a wild ride of talent that would transcend the industry and help define the culture of music. ❤

[@lionra4523]

Thank you!

[@Raspberrrysweet]

Wow that intro alone was incredible.

[@jeannetteduette6704]

Would love to have heard a collaboration with Prince and your female artist!

[@kyraocity]

Thank you for this podcast. I can use THIS as the primer for feminism in my Music Power and Digital Tech course. Two Black musicians dropping knowledge using an intersectional lens. Thanks to you both!

[@kyraocity]

32:00 Linking Meshell's Plantation Lullabies to evolution of hiphop. Her larger works to jazz, too.

[@TlunaImhotep]

I love this person. They don't even know how much I wish I'd been born a little bit earlier lol

[@kyraocity]

27:29" I get it too. Language. But language is not an abstract concept nor it is one monolithic meaning. Language informs communication. Language can be oral, written, lexical, or non-verbal (kna-meen, badunkadunk, sooky sooky now). Language is shared and contested. Language is invented and can be codified. It's not either/or. Its multitudes.

[@denisse37921]

This was really nice.

[@howardbrammer4871]

Sweet Love speaks to me

[@skyjuiceification]

This was mostly about Adrian.

[@brandyvaughn1]

❤️❤️❤️😍😍

[@kyraocity]

Language matters. There's been a move to replace "members of marginalized groups" with "minorities" since on many levels we are not "minorities." Our music is not minority. Our role in American U.S. culture and society, in its capitalist development and its expressive culture and media, is anything but minor or a minority. It is marginalized and we are not minorities in a qualitative sense. Numbers don't tell that story.

[@egroovesoldschoolmusic7171]

Hey Adrian, I have been a fan of Meshell Ndegeocello’s music since 1993 when I heard Outside My Door and then I bought the cassette tape. I love all of that album accept a song called Illutions that pisses me the fuck off. I thought and still think, you can’t tell people how and who to love! I was surprised and happy to learn years later that she fell in love with a white woman. I’ll bet that cured her predjudises a lot. Also though, as angry as I was about that song, I understand some of it. A friend of mine named Yalu who is 6 foot 1 and Black was involved with his White snob of a wife and I thought, he is so cool, what the fuck is he doing with her? He is so cool in his personality and she is judgemental, a snob, and thinks that money makes a person. I never thought that they belonged together. But I see different, I am visually impaired so what I’m going by when I say white and black is not necessarily by color because I’ve never seen color, it’s the ignorances or the whatever it is, the ignorance and or the intelligence that comes out of a person’s mouth. The colors, I go by flavors. Anything that looks like Molka and coffee has to come out looking good. Same with white chocolate but most people I know aren’t white chocolate, they’re snobbish, don’t speak, or whatever it is if you happen to be white with a nasty attitude. The ones I relate to and happen to be white, are like my friends Denise and Steph who came from the hippy generation, those people are cool. Black, I relate to Oldschool people a lot of the time. Anyway, the other album I love by Meshell NDegeocello is Peace Beyond Passion and also, Cookie the Mixtape. I don’t agree with throwing Gay people out of the house either. Parents need to get a grip and accept their kids the way they are. Anyway Adrian, I really enjoyed this interview. Oh and let me say this, some people I run into, I give them my music list, and I’ll bet they’re looking at me like I’m an Alien from Mars. “Why wasn’t I exposed to this music?’ Some of them ask me that, my thing is, if you are this old and you don’t know there’s a Soul station, than to me, that makes you predjudise in another way. I listened to 92.5 and KJLH when they were on the radio and the music collecting continued on after that. They don’t get, that they can go to a record store or wherever and find their music in a heartbeat. Me, I had to look/buggabooed people in the stores for 15 years about do you have this or that, because finding the Soul music that I wanted, was like looking for a needle in a haystack. And, why don’t more Black people know their own music history? They know all this HipHop stuff and they do not think to go back and they think that whoever did the sampling of music back in the days, that’s who actually did the music. I’m like no, that’s Cameo, not, Tupac! It drives me nuts! I’m probably the only one in my neighborhood who grooves to the music I groove to. That’s a whole mother story though. Being Visually Impaired, it’s always been about the vibe of whoever the people are that I come in contact with and the vibe of the music including both the Funk and the Rock. My problem with most people here is they only groove to the Rock. That I think is a predjudis on both the music and Black people as far as I’m concerned, they might not know it because they’re asleep and they’re stuck, but I know it. Adrian, much much love. Whatever is the shell that is the body that God put you in, people have to learn to look past the shell and into the mindset that is somebody’s spirit and heart and actually see where they’re at, don’t get me wrong, always be proud of your culture and who you are, but you never know what you’re gonna get or who you’re gonna get if you take the time to open eachother up and look within and not so much without and the mouth is closer to the heart, each one either shows you their good or their evil by what comes out of their mouth.

[@ngang1957]

11:50

[@artofunk]

Gene. Lake

[@brandyvaughn1]

To deep for one too under stand

[@jeannetteduette6704]

Are u going to let Meshell talk or are you going to hog th conversation?

[@thomasfranche6770]

When I was 16 in 1996, I remember her being marketed as some hyper spiritual non commercial being. So I bought Peace Beyond Passion. It is an OK record with 3-4 memorable tracks (Free My Heart, The Way). Although she portrayed herself as some poor black kid when she actually came from privilege. Today, I still like Bitter, but I’ve heard that blacks say that record is too white. Must be why I like it. Cookie is mostly communist rap quasi-drivel, though at least she became more nuanced regarding white people, which can be heard in the lyrics. I stopped listening after that.

[@AntwainDCurry]

“Black Lives Matter, Too” is how I read/hear the phrase in my mind. “Black Lives Matter” is a trite and uninformative reading of a complicated existence.

[@kyraocity]

Tiny Desk: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2jHk2WObrd0aLs