Me’shell Ndegeocello - "Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton Cover)"

In June we will be featuring all LGBTQ+ artists in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month

Genius musician Me’shell Ndegeocello is a veteran at relaying dynamic stories through song. Her work spans classical to cosmic reggae with vocal deliveries ranging from fiery emcee to tender acoustic songstress. Ndegeocello’s lyrics easily fall into a lineage of black poetry: love, pleasure, commercialism, heartbreak, revolution, time travel, space, religion, politics, sorrow, and joy. “Leviticus: Faggot,” from her early album, Peace Beyond Passion. contextualizes the harsh realities queer youth [of color] experience daily predisposing them to health outcomes such as drug addiction, homelessness, or suicide.

Similarly to Prince, her musical inspiration, Ndegeocello has struggled throughout her career honoring her authenticity in an industry confused how to neatly market beautiful gender binary blurring blackness. Honoring her authentic self – while escaping categories besides being Grammy-nominated – shows the resilience of black queer women carrying the blues tradition in the music industry. Me’shell offers days worth of listening with 12 albums under her belt, her most recent, Ventriloquism, just released spring 2018. M.B.

This song in particular is off of an album that Ndegeocello collaborated on with many other female artists honoring Dolly Parton’s work for women in music. Something about the way she fully reinvented the song has always really inspired me.

So today, with a little twist and another turn, I choose Me’shell Ndegeocello’s version of "Two Doors Down" by Dolly Parton, as my fight the monsters, remember your history, magic is all around us, song for a, sleeping but not got, recharge your juice, step up to the king, Monday.