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I think all musicians should understand that you have chosen not to be a soldier but a musician.

Meshell Ndegeocello

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Meshell Ndegeocello
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: August 29
Bassist
Composer
Guitarist
Jazz Musician
Rapper
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Berlin
Germany
Michelle Lynn Johnson
Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur
Me'Shell Ndegéocello
Musicians
Soldier
Chosen
Musician
Understand
Think
Thinking

More quotes by Meshell Ndegeocello

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My father was a jazz tenor sax player. He played in a lot of big bands. So I had that sound around me all the time. The first record that really caught my ear was Clifford Brown's 'Brownie Eyes.' I grew up listening to John Coltrane and Illinois Jacquet. This is where I come from... I love improvisational music.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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It's very limiting to us as a species, the concept of better-than/less-than. It just seems to be at its end. I'm like, this all fades to black, and it's gone. It's dust. Choose carefully what you obsess about.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Our leaders and Osama Bin Laden all claim to do the right thing in the name of God. I question that. I wonder if that God is worth the life of another human-being.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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It's funny, I think after you are a star like Sting and you no longer think you need any guidance or aid - it would be great to see those stars work with other songwriters.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Once you encounter people who are really testing the limits of kindness, that's when you start to build up a shield and close yourself down.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Definitely dub is in my body forever. I think I hear everything through a dub filter. Even when I play rock music, I play through a dub filter.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Music is my only guide. I don't care if people pigeonhole me. Miles Davis is my hero. He covered Cindy Lauper and Michael Jackson, and he didn't give a hoot about what the purists said.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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I dabble in the jazz world, which is male-­dominated. If you had two women playing together, it became a shtick. It becomes a girl group, and it has to be something cutesy. That's hard to contend with.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Music is like a lover that I can't commit to, but I seem to always find myself in bed with.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Your yes means nothing if you can't say no.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Any ideas of “other” are complicated, and otherness is relative to personal ideas of “normal.”
Meshell Ndegeocello
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My favorite period is when we lived in the land of the three-minute song. The Motown thing - I thought they were genius in knowing that's as much as a listener can take.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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I'm becoming more and more apolitical - I think the most revolutionary thing you can do is just live your life and have a good time. Before they scoop you up on the street or you die.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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I'm a true believer that unless you're Prince or Stevie Wonder - and even Prince is showing that he needs help - not everybody can produce themselves. I'm definitely not that person.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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I think leaders are incapable of the strength that passive resistance entails.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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Your government has problems...my government has problems. I can't be a judge. All I can do is be an ambassador of love. I'm a musician, not a soldier, and if I'm invited to a place in order to play and bring love, I'll always accept the invitation.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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The blowing thing is something that you either have a predilection for or not. And I don't have that thing. It was just unsanitary. I couldn't do it. I am a complete germaphobe.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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God looks out for fools and babies.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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It's interesting to do other people's music - that's how I learned to play, by learning other people's songs. It's nice to delve into how other people got to where they are.
Meshell Ndegeocello
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I love children. I'd prefer to be around children much more than adults, actually. And I like animals, too. I'm just really into beings who are at ease with themselves.
Meshell Ndegeocello