Search - Meshell Ndegeocello :: Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape

Meshell's impresses with Cookie

Mecca Egypt | Gardena, CA United States | 06/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"NdegéOcello's fourth album Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape is a mesmerizing affair. It's triptych in quality: A blazing sociopolitical critique one minute, a soulful slow burner the next, the album then turns right around and becomes a conversation piece breathing with the sensibilities of Miles Davis. The multi-layered quality of this record is amazingly assembled. She returns true to form on her long awaited follow-up to 1999's Bitter.Created almost a year before its forthcoming release date Cookie serves as a fine wine. It's lyrical virtues and musical possibilities are inimitable and only get better with age. The incendiary "Hot Night" serves as the perfect backdrop to a long, troubling summer with a blistering rap by Talib Kweli and sound bites by Angela Davis. Ironically, Me'Shell makes prophecies for the year to come with lines like "Suffer in the World Trade paradise with me now" - the album being created nearly four months before the attacks on America. "God.Fear.Money" is a piece that demystifies the perception of celebrity ("I was way down for the revolution, until I found it was contingent upon some corporate sponsorship / And if Jesus was alive today, he'd be incarcerated with the rest of the brothas / Devil'll have a great apartment on the Upper East Side, be a guest VJ on Total Request Live'). The lyrics on Cookie are intelligent, witty and direct.Cookie isn't all trouble funk though, laced within is a bouquet of sensual arrangements. "I ain't gon' pay your rent, all I got is love and time to spend, can I hang with you" is the plea to true love. "Berry Farms" is a no-holds-barred narrative on a past same-sex relationship with a girl who couldn't love her openly without shame and fear ("She had the kind of kisses that made you sad) and sports one of the most surprising lyrical bridges in years. She explores the gamut of elated ecstasy. "Trust" is among the sexiest songs of her career. Temperate yet mild, it simmers with anticipatory nectar ("Put your tongue in my mouth, make me wet, run your hands down my back, grab my [rear]). "Earth" is truly transcending, it floats above one's consciousness with the ubiquity of Roy Ayers. It also marks a return to the bass playing ferocity that made her first two records Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion instant classics and influential sample-templates (just ask Brian McKnight)."Pleasure is the motivation," comments NdeGéOcello on "Better By The Pound" and indeed, the album is just that. With backing by such luminaries as Gil Scott Heron, Lalah Hathaway and Caron Wheeler, it's a sure thing. It is an album that will stay with you long after everything that currently sits on Billboard fades; Cookie only ripens and glows with time. All embracing, all encompassing, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape is NdegéOcello in her element. Easily garnering cult status, she taps into the life of a moment and in turn crafts one of the strongest, most emotive and complex albums of a generation."

HOT

paul | liverpool | 06/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"O.K.
I live in the u.k and had to get this on import, was not cheap but worth every pound!!
I have been checking out Michelle's web FreeMyMind and loved the samples of the songs from her new album. Any way the album was not a let down. I feel this will be looked upon as a very important album when critically looked at in say fifteen-twenty years. Socialy aware and as relevent an album as u will find. Espially after Sept 11. There is not a weak track on the whole album. It is not an easy listen though. It took me a few rotations to feel the vibe. But once it has got u, ure hooked. Killer songs like the title track 'Dead Nigger Boulevard' and the funk of God Fear and Money ,Barry Farm are raw. The sensual songs are absolutely to die for quite Princely. But I am a big Prince fan so I don't see any thing wrong in that. Truth and Earth are beautiful songs to get close to your partners absolutely beautiful.Rounding this brief critique of the album I can just say check it out. U will not be let down and if ure anything like me this will become one of ure favourite albums. Peace"

LIBERATING AND UNAPOLOGETIC

Mecca Egypt | 06/11/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While all of the other reviews have covered the content of the album pretty accurately and thoroughly, I have to say how much respect I have for Meshell for unabashadly embracing her sexual identity. Her lyrics and songs about racism and political thought (I LOVE her cut with Talib Kweli) are to be expected but I did find some of her more political strongs with the soundbites from various black poets a bit forced and uneven (Countee Cullen just didn't quite "fit" with Gil Scott Heron, June Jordan or Etheridge Knight). A couple of her cuts also sounded like some of the joints on her other albums. But her erotic songs and lyrics about love and sexuality whether it be homosexuality, bisexuality or heterosexuality are extremely powerful and unapologetic. She lets us know that whether she loves women or men or both, her wants, needs and desires are strong, deep and passionate. Listening to her talk about her erotic experiences with Lalah Hathaway and Caron Wheeler singing backup both together AND individually is truly a sensual listening experience. Meshell makes you realize that we ALL have deep seated needs, wants and passions that exist whether we CHOOSE to repress or acknowledge them. She truly claims HER SPACE as a conscientious lover of black people, of both MEN and WOMEN, in her eternal struggle for acceptance, identity and justice in this crazy racist, sexist and homophobic world we live in. YOU GO GIRL.... Buy this CD, you won't be disappointed."