Performance · Production

Me'Shell Ndegéocello

real name Michelle Lynn Johnson

West Berlin, West Germany

Me'Shell Ndegéocello is credited on 570 releases across 180 albums tracked on Gatefold, active 1988–2026 — the collector-built map of who actually made the music.

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570

Credits

180

Albums

5

Decades active

564

In collections

Biography

Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, bassist, vocalist, and activist. Born on August 29, 1968 in West Berlin (Germany) as Michelle Lynn Johnson, and raised in Washington DC (USA) where she learned her musical craft by playing in go-go bands in the late 1980s. Before her debut album she adopted the Me'Shell NdegéOcello surname, which she says means "free like a bird" in Swahili, which she has since started spelling Meshell Ndegeocello. She has also used the nom de plume Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur. Ndegeocello has been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards (and counting).
Daughter of "Saxman" Jacques T. Johnson Sr. (opens in a new tab).
Sister of
Mother.

Bio from Discogs

Credited work

570 releases · 180 albums · active 1988–2026

  • Performance · 974
  • Production · 108
  • Other credits · 36
  • Engineering · 2

Studios: The Hit Factory · Axis Studios · DARP Studios · Wild Bunch Studios

Discography

Records they worked on — most-collected first.

Frequent collaborators

Around the web

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