Editing Meshell Ndegeocello (section)

==Biography==
Ndegeocello was born Michelle Lynn Johnson in [[West Berlin]], Germany, to US Army [[Sergeant Major]] and saxophonist father Jacques Johnson and health care worker mother Helen. She was raised in Washington, D.C., where she attended [[Duke Ellington School of the Arts]] and [[Oxon Hill High School]].

Ndegeocello adopted her surname, which she says means "free like a bird" in [[Swahili language|Swahili]]. Early pressings of ''[[Plantation Lullabies]]'' were affixed with stickers to help pronounce her name. The spelling has changed in the hands of record labels a few times during her career; the correct spelling of her stage name as of 2001 is ''Meshell Ndegeocello''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freemyheart.com |title=FreeMyHeart.com |publisher=FreeMyHeart.com |date=March 3, 2001 |access-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref>