With "Ventriloquism," Meshell Ndegeocello revisits eleven songs from her personal pantheon, including works by George Clinton, Tina Turner, Sade, Janet Jackson, and Prince. "Early in my career, I was asked to keep making the same kind of albums over and over; and when I strayed from that path, I lost all support. There is little diversity within musical genres, which are ghettoizing themselves, and I like the idea of transforming the great hits I loved into something a little less familiar. It was an opportunity to pay tribute in a slightly different way..."