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By Kenya Yarbrough

F'get neo-soul. Yeah, that's right. We said it. And while you're at it, f'get all those other music categories. Music maestro Me'Shell Ndegeocello is proclaiming a new way to look at music - just as music. Considered hard to categorize, Ndegeocello's music has garnered a legion of loyal fans and a number of humbled critics. Her style is indescribable. It's R&B, it's funk, it's rock, it's neo-soul, it's soul itself, and that's what she wants music listeners to find in her music. Her latest CD, "Cookie: the Anthropological Mixtape," follows up her 1999 release, "Bitter," which hit the streets with little fanfare unlike her 1993 debut, "Plantation Lullabies," or her 1996 sophomore set, "Peace Beyond Passion." But the problem (if we can call it that) with "Bitter," Ndegeocello suggested, was that people were expecting to categorize it. After all, with four albums under her belt, seven Grammy nominations, and accolades from everywhere, the "singer" still remains an "underground phenomenon" that some say sparked the neo-soul movement. "I'm just constantly trying to create and challenge myself and see what I can get to. Neo-classic-soul? I'm going to make a jazz record. I'm going to make a rock record. I'm going to do everything. The category doesn't really work for me. I'm just trying to be creative. Everybody - [we're] not doing anything different. Curtis Mayfield, Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin - we're just carrying on the tradition of our ancestors. I can't take any credit for anything. It's the Rhythm & Blues, it's the great American art form. I'm just continuing it on. It's all our music. I just play music - I play black music." Furthermore, she said she has no qualms with the politics of radio formatting: "I can reach the audiences," she said. "That was the awakening. I started to feel so much better about myself when I said, 'They have their criteria and I have mine.' I've got to be true to mine and make the music I want to make. If the radio doesn't play it, I'm really ok. I did 'Bitter' and people said it wasn't a black record. I want to make art and you don't get the best thing trying to hook on to trends." Speaking of art, Ndegeocello's art goes beyond music. Her body art also sends the message of who she is. Tatted down her arms, and on her neck, we asked the multi-genre artist about her tear tattoo. She explained that while tattoos have a traditional meaning - the tear often signifying that you've taken someone's life - she's made a connotation of her own for the tattoo. True Ndegeocello form. "I think we're all trying to adorn our bodies, fit in a tribe. It's like a rack of personalities. But I had to take the tattoos and put my spin on them. Most of [my tattoos] are like spiritual motifs. The tear traditionally means you took somebody's life. Mine means that I killed my ego," she explained. Furthermore, she explained that African Americans have taken images and representations and shaped or defined them in their own way. "We are a ritualistic people. As Americans we've gravitated to some different ones. For instance, the male transitional process has become our prisons, and I'm saying, 'Get into some other spiritual things. Don't kill nobody else, kill your ego, kill your want for the world.' I'm trying to come up with some black bar mitzvah, something to get back to the roots. I'm trying to come up with something of my own that will connect me to beautiful, loving things." She has definitely come up with something. This time it's in the form of "Cookie," which Rolling Stone proclaimed as, "Powerful, beautiful, sensual and activist, this is the record Prince keeps trying to make," giving it four stars. "It's a journey," she said, describing her new album. "It has all styles of music that I love. It shows where I come from. It's all a connection, it's all anthropological." She said that the idea for the album title was sparked by a writer named Oliver Sacks, and his books about evolution. A book called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn also sparked some interest. "It's a great book, 'Ishmael,' where this guy comes in contact with a gorilla that can speak to you through telepathy. It's just all anthropological. When we look back in the past, all of our great wars were fought over religion, just like now. You have to look back to see where you're coming from and all my records are just pieces in a memoir. It's my anthropological mixtape, to see how I'm evolving." For the album, Ndegeocello called out to a number of stars in the hip-hop community, but came up a bit empty-handed. She explained that the rigmarole that went along with getting those artists held up the art itself. "I was trying to make a record like those Quincy Jones records. Those Michael Jackson records were great because, like, 'Can't Help It' on 'Off The Wall' was written by Stevie Wonder and he had guest musicians. I mean, I wasn't trying to sell them on it, I was just trying to make music and it's just sad when your peers see you as aloof - that I'm seen as this aloof, angry black woman. That's not who I am. I'm just trying to make music with people. Now I'm like, 'You see what happened?' I'm just saying next time, don't let your record company tell you who you can and can't make music with." Not surprisingly, in comparison to her music style, or styles for that matter, Ndegeocello says she is a big fan of music in general. She said Sting, Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Musiq, and even the Backstreet Boys are on her music playlist. "I'm not limited in my scope and I'm just trying to show that that can exist. I'm not just neo-classic soul, I am the alternative space galactic Negro. I'm trying to be in the future all the time," she said. As she's stated before, the future is the past. But she takes it even further, adding that the future is also now. "The greatest scripture in the bible is, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' This is it. This is it, and if you don't make the best of it and get out of this death vibe?... It scares me how artists glorifying death - like you'd die for the rap game - please, give me a God-dang-ol' break. I wanna die on the porch of old age. I'm trying to show that there are thinking people of color. Yeah, I wanna be a pimp, too, I wanna have fun, but that's not what I gravitate towards. There are other images to be seen." "Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape" is in stores now.

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