Tortilla said:

That has got to be one of the freshest most positive videos I have seen from a pop artist in years. No showing your ass just positive vibes and lyrics that tell a good message. This song makes me want to go to work!!

Creative impulses Take Janelle Monáe Across Genres
April 2010

Janelle Monáe has a dream. And like many things in Monáe's world, that dream involves androids.

"I can't wait to see the day when androids and humans are making love to each other," says Monáe, the 24-year-old sparkplug who plays Saint Andrew's Hall in Detroit on Friday. It's one of a half-dozen utterly bizarre things she says during a brief phone conversation while promoting the Saint Andrew's date and her upcoming album, "The ArchAndroid," due May 18.

Let's start with her location. "I'm in a cellar surrounded by rats, committing sins," says Monáe, the most pro-robot performer to emerge since Daft Punk. Hmm, which sins? "The sin of unplugging an android on a rainy day."


Intrigued -- and perhaps against our better judgment -- we play along. What's so wrong about unplugging an android on a rainy day?

"On rainy days, they eat Popsicles," she says, explaining Popsicles give them a deep freeze that's their only way of understanding touch. "And I've stopped that, so they are upset."

It's clear this conversation can go one of two ways, and thankfully talk eventually steers away from rat- and android-infested dungeons. But when she pauses later to sneeze, she quickly snaps back into character. "It's these rat hairs!" she exclaims.

Oh, boy.

A vivid imagination

It goes without saying that Monáe -- who cites a host of influences that range from abolitionist Harriet Tubman and sci-fi writer Octavia Butler to surrealist painter Salvador Dali and hip-hop poet Lauryn Hill -- has a vivid imagination. She hopes her creativity "opens up doors for young girls like myself," so they're not "living on the ground all their lives."

Her vibrant, unique style was evident when in 2009 she performed at the Final Four concerts along Detroit's Riverfront. Wearing a white suit with black trim and a Colonel Sanders necktie, her hair done up in an eye-raising pompadour, Monáe stood out from the pack of bland, paint-by-numbers artists assembled for the free concerts. She energized the audience with a flavorful mixture of funk, R&B, hip-hop and new wave, and even added a dash of punk-rock energy into the mix when she dove into the crowd.

Her spirited live show is one of the reasons Monáe's profile has been climbing ever since the Kansas City native linked up with OutKast's Big Boi in the mid-'00s. She was featured on the soundtrack to the group's 2006 film "Idlewild," and released her debut EP, "Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase," in 2007.

"The Chase" netted Monáe a Grammy nomination in the Urban/Alternative field, and in 2009 she toured with Of Montreal and No Doubt and logged appearances at the Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza festivals.

With buzz building for "The ArchAndroid," 2010 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for Monáe. The album's first single "Tightrope" -- a soulful stew that draws from equal parts southern hip-hop and alternative R&B -- lit up the blogosphere when it debuted in February, and concurrent single "Cold War" received an equally warm reception.

"Tightrope" is all about keeping balance, says Monáe. "When you're living life, whether you're young or old, you absolutely have to be balanced or you will explode," she says.

"It's an empowerment song; James Brown was definitely with me in writing that," she continues. "I love the empowering songs he would write, and I want people to dance, too. I think it's a spiritual experience when you can dance and you're being fed something that you can apply to your life that can help you. It's a hypnosis for the mind and body."

Uniting audiences

Monáe calls her forthcoming "ArchAndroid" release an "emotion picture for the mind." She says upon its release she wants people to "dance naked in the streets."

"I want this album to get people arrested!" the up-and-comer beams. Word to the wise: Start setting aside bail money now.

Furthermore, with her cross-genre style, Monáe hopes to help bring divergent audiences together, from indie rock kids to hip-hop heads to even a few alien species (including, yes, androids).

"I believe my music is meant to bring people together, and when I look out into the audience, I see just that," says the artist and producer. "I want to do away with categories, and the doubts that people that look like myself can create this type of music. I want to see a day where we're bringing together a diverse audience, and see many different androids and cyborgs and humans havin' fun, and just jammin'."



http://detnews.com/articl...z0k8IIx4ji

Like her. She's very good.

Tortilla said:

Nice horns.....and those suits are sharp.

Tortilla said:

Love the song and video !