Mention the name Meshell Ndegeocello to the average music fan and you’ll likely receive a “huh?” in response. There may be a handful of people who remember her from her brief brush with MTV fame in the mid ’90s, thanks to the hit single “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)” and her presence on John Mellencamp’s Top 10 cover of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night.” The average music fan would probably conclude that Meshell was merely a blip on the pop music radar.

The average music fan would be wrong.

However, despite never achieving (or actively courting) mainstream success, Meshell has built up a rabid and well-deserved cult following in the 16 years since her Grammy-nominated debut, Plantation Lullabies, the album that virtually kicked off the “neo-soul” movement that spawned D’Angelo, Maxwell and Erykah Badu, among others. In that time, the singer/songwriter/bassist/bandleader/rapper/poet has become her generation’s answer to Prince (although thankfully releasing albums at a more leisurely pace). Criss-crossing genres with ease, taking unflinching looks at religion and racial and sexual politics while also bringing incredible musicianship to everything she touches, Meshell just might be the most overlooked and underrated artist — in any musical genre — of the past 20 years. (more…)