Elliptical (eBook)

Plantation Lullabies

It was late fall of 1993, I was twenty-one and living in Los Angeles, when my landlady came running from her apartment into mine and said, "Have you heard of this new female artist who sounds like Prince?" As a huge Prince fan, I was like "ahh, no!" She handed me a CD and said, "You have to listen to this, but I want it back, as soon as you've finished listening to it." I shut the door and in my hands was that CD. I stared at the cover, intrigued and mystified. The mirrored effect imagery of the artist, on both sides of the CD case mind you, the name Me'Shell something, I thought to myself. Trying to pronounce the last name left me perplexed. But it was the title Plantation Lullabies that added to the mystery. Then turning the CD case over, again, to read the song titles, "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)," "Shoot'n Up and Gett'n High," "Step Into The Projects"…I was like lord what has my landlady given me to listen to! So, I ran to the stereo and opened the CD case and behold, before even noticing the CD itself, the image of a racially charged, black person (assumedly) with eyes bugging out of its head, mouth wide open, and what appears to be nappy hair but displayed like chess pieces in all black with a no sign (a circle with a line drawn diagonally across the circle) around the object described. I was like what? Then I thought for a minute, "No nigga." Okay, I had to put this CD in the player. I hit play and the first track, "Plantation Lullabies," began to play with its opening keyboard synth and piano riffs; with a smirk on my face, I was like, "what is this?" But one who likes to listen from beginning to end of a musical journey, I didn't skip through the tracks. Then, just as "Lullabies" was fading out, "I'm Diggin' You (Like An Old Soul Record)" began to play. I was hooked! I began looking at the artwork immediately to find out more about this artist. The first thing I saw was the words "Is Dead Silence" in a patterned effect, and opposite was a photo, still not convinced it was the artist, of a woman with one half breast exposed, nipple and all, in a zombie meets voodoo crazed composition AND at first glance what appears to be garlic wrapped around her neck, I'm like "Noooo, that's cotton wrapped around her neck, like a necklace." The image had the words "alternative hip-hop" written across the image. The music is still playing at this moment, while I proceed to check out the CD booklet. I open it up fully to see the lyrics written in various typefaces and weights with an image in the center of the booklet of a half-faced person with what appears to be a men's suit on with a poem or statement written by Greg Tate that begins "There's no such thing as alternative hip-hop because the only known alternative to hip-hop is dead silence." Then I turn the booklet over and there's a photo of Ms. Ndegeocello, dressed androgynously; I was like "okay," with sheer delight that she may be gay. Below the image was the spelling of her last name, which was then spelled "NdegéOcello." Next to the name was its meaning "free like a bird" in Swahili. I was thinking is she African? (Natively, that is). Needless to say, my landlady did not get the CD back for several months.

I was working at Montgomery Wards, a retail store, when my co-worker said, "Guess who is signing autographs at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd.?" I said, "Prince!" He said, "Hell, no, MeShell…" I screamed, "Ndege mutherfuckin' ocello!" And we both screamed. The only problem was that we had to figure out a way to take a long lunch break. So, we began scheming how we were going to get out of working for the day to go to the autograph signing. I pretended that I was sick and he told Personnel that he had some family issues. Needless to say, we were on our way to Tower Records. When we arrived, there was a long line outside of Tower. I remember standing in line saying, "I can't believe that I'm going to meet her." I also began to remember my first autograph signing at Tower, meeting Lisa Stansfield. I was one of the first in line. They were filming that day for Lisa's upcoming documentary. I was filmed standing in line and inside the store getting my arm autographed. You can see me in her VHS Video titled "Lisa Stansfield: Real Life." But I digress. We begin entering the store and there she is, Meshell sitting behind a table on a high riser. I grabbed two Plantation CD's from the rack, one for playing and one to get signed…that's right, I was finally purchasing my own after having my landlady's for so long. It was time to approach the table and I said, "It is such an honor to be in your presence and I love the CD." Meshell said, humbly, "Thank you." Then she signed my CD on her adrogynous photo. I remember leaving Tower Records floating on air. Although I never got to see her perform that album live during its initial release because she had already performed it in various venues before I was aware of her and her music, and she had retired those songs from live performances for the most part for several years, it would be many years later, approximately 21 years later (1993–2014), that I would have the privilege of experiencing several songs from Plantation Lullabies performed live for the first time, ever.

INSIDE THE MUSIC

By any measure, Plantation Lullabies is a brilliant album, and sounds as strong today as it did when it was released in October 1993. The themes deal with racism, black pride, and creating spaces for love in a besieged, black urban setting: modern day plantations, places of confinement like ghettoes and shantytowns. She says she wrote the songs to soothe everything that was going on in her mind. And there was plenty to soothe. The songs are not all bleak, as the metaphor suggests, but reflect a range of experiences from joy to oppression. She has called them "heartbroken revolutionary love songs." They reflect a certain psychic space where she was at one point in her life, and although she says she's evolved beyond the point of view of some of the lyrics, it's okay to acknowledge that the songs still stand as exceptional compositions. The album was nominated for Best R&B Album, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Song ("If That's Your Boyfriend") for the 1995 Grammy Awards; and garnered a groundswell of critical acclaim.

Meshell makes an artistic statement in the album booklet lest anyone is foolish enough to label her music "alternative hip-hop." She quotes Greg Tate, "There's no such thing as alternative hip-hop because the only alternative to hip-hop is dead silence." Another problematic label thrust upon her was neo-soul. It's a useful category for explaining the esthetic sound of the album, which blended contemporary and retro elements from soul to hip-hop, but not a useful label for Meshell as an artist, and that's where the problem arises. People unwittingly made the jump from saying Plantation Lullabies represented a neo-soul sound to saying Meshell was a neo-soul artist. Well, we're human beings, we like to categorize things. Sometimes it helps us make sense of a chaotic world. Often it leads us astray.

The short instrumental prelude, "Plantation Lullabies," sets the stage with moody, arpeggiated piano chords that keep repeating, going nowhere: the sound of places of confinement. Then all at once we're thrust into an upbeat, retro soul vibe, "I'm Diggin' You (Like An Old Soul Record)." We're transported back to the heyday of black consciousness and eight-track players. Initially, the song follows a typical R&B structure, the chorus differentiated from the verse by instrumental layering rather than chord sequences, as well as by singing versus rapping. The R&B structure is appropriately evocative of 70s era soul, and Meshell quotes the lyric hook from the 1972 Four Tops hit "Ain't No Woman (Like The One I Got)" at the end of the first verse.

But then she shakes things up with a different bass line and vibe for verse 2. She elides the chorus and verse by introducing the new bass line in the middle of the preceding chorus. The mood becomes more aggressive with the shift to negative imagery: in contrast to "cultivating a positive vibe" in the first verse, she raps in the second verse about "cops that be chasin'" and "running out of patience." This leads into another mood shift with a bass-and-drums breakdown, followed by a tempestuous 70s-style guitar solo by David Fiuczynski. The rhythmic impetus then abruptly drops out to allow a moment of reflection—that characteristic technique that will show up throughout her music—with piano and guitar filtered to sound distant, or as if playing on old, scratchy vinyl. After this pause, the R&B structure resumes with chorus, third verse (back to a positive vibe with "beautiful brown bodies"), and chorus to fade.

One of the charms of Meshell's music is her harmonic palette. She jokingly refers to upsetting the "chord police," and Plantation Lullabies is her first rap sheet. While she draws on the sonic vocabulary of jazz, her harmonies are not always rooted in the chord progressions that even jazz uses as a foundation. Often, her chords impart flavor and mood rather than forward momentum. She derives momentum instead from rhythm and the melodic contours of the vocal and bass lines. In "I'm Diggin' You," the bass outlines...