Label: Maverick
Country: Canada
Performers:
Geri Allen - Piano
Andre Betts - Programming, Producer, Drum Programming
Luis Conte - Conga
Tom Coyne - Mastering
David Fiuczynski - Guitar
David Gamson - Drums, Producer
Byron Jackson - Vocals (bckgr)
Beverly Jenkins - Director
George Karras - Mixing
Bobby Lyle - Piano
Mic Murphy - Engineer
Me'Shell NdegeOcello - Vocals, Voices, Multi Instruments, Producer, Drum Programming
Bob Power - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
James Preston - Piano
Joshua Redman - Sax (Tenor)
Bill Summers - Drums, Shekere
Wah Wah Watson - Guitar

OGG Preview: PREVIEW.-.Me'shell.NdegeOcello.-.Plantation.Lullabies.ogg 1 clicks

Me'Shell NdegéOcello's debut album twists and turns through so many genres -- R&B, pop, jazz, hip-hop -- that it's hard to put a finger on just where she wants to take its 13 songs. That she also spins conventional racial and sexual identity here makes Plantation Lullabies an occasionally overwhelming -- as well as a vibrantly sophisticated -- listen. Ndegeocello defies labels throughout, tagging her slinking and crawling songs with a rubbery flow that's just as rooted in '70s funky soul as it is in '90s hip-hop culture. The best songs here -- "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)," "Dred Loc," and "Outside Your Door" -- work their way into their grooves with a seamless, and almost uniform, bounce. It can be a bit derivative (for all of NdegéOcello's genre-crossing, she always seems to go back to the same musical blueprint), but most of the time it's just about as boundary-busting and as affecting as '90s R&B gets.AMG

Tracklisting:
1. Plantation Lullabies
2. I'm Diggin You (Like An Old Soul Record)
3. If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)
4. Shoot'n Up And Gett'n High
5. Dred Loc
6. Untitled
7. Step Into The Projects
8. Soul On Ice
9. Call Me
10. Outside Your Door
11. Picture Show
12. Sweet Love
13. Two Lonely Hearts (On The Subway)