Musician. Actor. Broadway playwright. Fashionista. Afrofuturist. Author. ‘Emotion picture’ filmmaker. Queer icon. Part-time messiah.
All of these and none of these describe the majestic vibe of visionary Janelle Monáe, who is so utterly herself that to pigeonhole her as anyone else would be whistling in the wind. As a theatre kid in Kansas City, KS, Monáe was born to “a very hard working-class family who make nothing into something” and has since made a residence in Los Angeles and Atlanta. I know why I appreciate her, but in case you’ve never been graced by her presence in movies, awards shows, or music videos, lemme break it down for you.
In the fashion world, Janelle Monáe is known for wearing dandy, elegant tuxedos (as well as some downright innovative Halloween costumes), embracing both her masculine and feminine sides as a nonbinary artist who uses all pronouns.
In the music business, she is known for her sci-fi inspired concept albums that despite being absolute bangers have never reached the top positions on Billboard.
In the film industry, she is known for portraying women of pathos and excellence, such as scientist Mary Jackson in Hidden Figures and the influential Brand sisters in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
Having made her mark in all these fields, it is clear to see how Monáe’s unique eccentricity blends perfectly in a large number of roles. She was friends with Prince during his life, and there is perhaps no better comparison: both have vital connections to the Midwest, both are genre-defining multimedia artists, both have a relentless creativity that defy easy categorisation. She has alternately dabbled in the genres of jazz, pop-punk, R&B, soul, and even gospel.
After being fired from Office Depot for answering fan-mail during work hours, she wrote ‘Lettin’ Go’, a glitzy, brassy anthem that resolves to party in the face of rejection. It caught the attention of Big Boi, who hitched her onto P. Diddy’s label (nope, not touching that). Everything started going off for her when she started her own label in 2015– Wondaland Arts Society– in Monáe’s own words, a “school for mutants and droids” who want to “piss off the Old Guard of gatekeepers who don’t understand the value of black-renaissance artists.” When renowned essayist Roxane Gay asked Monáe what her Afrofuture looks like, her response was “Right now, it’s Lil Uzi Vert being happy with orange locs, Erykah Badu doulaing, Octavia Butler’s voice, Stacey Abrams being president and punching Trump out the Oval seat, black people getting passports and hanging out in Africa, black queer lovers holding hands while the pastor smiles, George Clinton’s sunglasses in 1974, Prince’s eyeliner in Under the Cherry Moon, black bodies walking away alive after a police stop, Tierra Whack and Ari Lennox joking on Twitter, black kings in nail polish, Lupita’s performance in Us. It looks like an orgasm and the big bang happening while skydiving as Grace Jones smiles.”
Equally beguiling and bewildering is Monáe’s long-form music video– or emotion picture– for her ‘Dirty Computer’ album. In this emotion picture, one can expect to see Monáe clothed entirely in diamonds, polyamorous power throuples, Blade Runner-esque interrogation scenes, an open embrace of love in the entirety of its spectrum, and of course vaginas.
Lots and lots of vaginas.
The more you watch and the more you listen, the more apparent it is that Janelle ‘Jane 57821’ Monáe is one of those rare artists without a single fuck to give. Noted sex historian Eleanor Janega compares her favourably with Hildegard von Bingen, which is a good sign that she's doing something right. Unapologetically cyberpunk and pansexual, with influences from Philip K. Dick to Prince, the electric lady cannot be anyone but herself. Monáe explains her close connection with androids as an expression of the ‘other’: “I speak about androids because I think the android represents the new ‘other’. You can compare it to being a lesbian or being a gay man or being a black woman… What I want is for people who feel oppressed or feel like the ‘other’ to connect with the music.” Her android alter ego (alternatively known as ‘Jane’ and ‘Cindi Mayweather’) is thus a mouthpiece for everyone on the margins, an eternal rebel against the institutions that keep her and other ‘androids’ down.
The Afrofuture Janelle Monáe envisions is a liberated world where queer lovers can love queerly and sexy dancers can dance sexily, flaunting their essences in the face of monolithic institutions that would like nothing better than to wipe them out. In 2024, this message is more potent than ever; the artist herself believes “we’re going to be living in a world of androids by 2029”, and there is a sense that she means this both literally and figuratively. Yes, technology is accelerating at an alarming pace, but so is intolerance. This dystopian anxiety present in Monáe’s oeuvre is, according to the inimitable Ms. Gay (whom we might have to do a showcase on at some point), “motivated by the fear she felt after the 2016 presidential election, fear for her safety as a black woman in a world where white supremacists were newly emboldened, fear for the political trajectory of the country.” And when you listen to her records, there is no denying the sense of dystopian fear and rebellion that permeates her music. The possibility that you or I will become an unknown ‘them’ in the face of the hegemonic ‘us’ is becoming frighteningly real.
Last year, Monáe moved from sci-fi concept albums to a pure celebration of herself and her sexuality in the EP ‘The Age of Pleasure’. Monáe describes the EP as not only music but “a movement… a soundtrack to a lifestyle. And I think what we’re seeing is that people are radically staying rooted in joy; like, I’m radically staying rooted in joy.” Considering the times, there are worse things than enjoying fame and choosing joy over fear despite every indication that fear should win. It is an ecstatic end to her android arc: from the carbon-steel cocoon of Jane 57821 springs the joyous butterfly Janelle Monáe in full glory. Bold and honest, constantly evolving, refusing to limit herself to one aesthetic or one sound– Queen Monáe is a criminally underrated vibe in and of herself.
Written by Lucas Beverley, @americanskald on Instagram.
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