Meshell Ndegeocello

Michelle Lynn Johnson is the one like a hundred years ago laying down the caterwauling bass track on John Mellencamp's cover of "Wild Night".   Just so you're properly introduced:

She plays a walking mad bass, and raps even better.  Her name means "free like a bird" in Swahili.
You can't be in love with her, but she'd make it difficult anyway.  Her approach to music is, for the uninitiated, offputting and uncompromising, and, even when groovalicious, carries a stinging backhand slap, as in the catcall (ouch) "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)":
 

That is definitely not your mother's nursery rhyme (although, yes, that was indeed Jon Stewart), and Meshell has provided the world 20 more years of righteous anger brushed over a truly gentle soul.  If you tend to shy away from improvisation and extended riffs, even in the presence of overwhelming talent, you probably already tuned Sirius to watercolor frequency anyway.  "If she'd just chop off the first 30 seconds, and every 30 seconds in between" pop record execs probably complain regarding her unwillingness to craft hooks rather than handcraft birch bark canoes.

So it is with some hesitancy (because to her die hards it's like she's selling out) that I recommend, if you've yet to hear her, giving a listen to Meshell's latest album "Ventriloquism".  The cover ex'plains it up (V for pink triangle), because the album is entirely covers.
Get me a grrraphic designer
Her tribute to Prince via "Sometimes It Snows In April" and a drastic reworking of TLC's "Waterfalls" are already up (and trending up) at YouTube (as is one of her apparent faves (but not necessarily mine) "Tender Love").  Commercially, it may be more of a success (it will certainly earn her another Grammy nod), but if you truly want to impress your friends at your next rave, cue up an older, underappreciated collaborative gem, again with Meshell doing most of the grunt work:

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