When Janelle Monae took to the Grammy stage last Sunday night, absent were the acrobatics, multiple dancers and elaborate sets artists usually use to distract their audiences. Monae was live, real live in her trademark pompadour and black and white tux as she wielded her voice like an ax to belt "Cold War," an anthem that describes the suffering of Cindy Mayweather, an Alpha Platinum 9000 android who faces disassembly because she fell in love with Anthony Greendown, a human. Because of that societal transgression, Cindy must run for her life.
Eyes were magnetized by Monae's performance. Her microphone, dance moves, four piece band, and her incredible voice was all we needed. When she was through with her song, the Grammy audience, and we suspect those watching at home, rose to their feet, awestruck, electrified and cheered.
Monae created Cindy Mayweather as the face of the sci-fi narrative of her two concept albums: 2007's "Metropolis: The Chase Suite" and its 17 song follow-up, "The Archandroid" realeased in 2010. Metropolis' break out song "Many Moons" was nominated for a Grammy.
Eyes were magnetized by Monae's performance. Her microphone, dance moves, four piece band, and her incredible voice was all we needed. When she was through with her song, the Grammy audience, and we suspect those watching at home, rose to their feet, awestruck, electrified and cheered.
Monae created Cindy Mayweather as the face of the sci-fi narrative of her two concept albums: 2007's "Metropolis: The Chase Suite" and its 17 song follow-up, "The Archandroid" realeased in 2010. Metropolis' break out song "Many Moons" was nominated for a Grammy.
After her incredible performace, the unitiated wondered: Who was this black girl with perfect skin, lithe limbs, dancing and singing like she's trying to sustain the world?
Monae was born Janelle Monae Robinson and spent most of her early life in Kansas City, Kansas with her parents. Her mother was a janitor and her father worked at the post office. Both wore uniforms and inspired and supported Monae to pursue her dreams. Her idea of a uniform, her trademark tuxedo, comes from watching them work for a living.
After high school Monae attended the American Musical And Dramatic Academy in New York in hopes of becoming a Broadway actress. Realizing that she'd rather be an artist working with music, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia and worked odd jobs while trying to get a record deal. Fed up with the process, she created and signed herself to her own label, the Wondaland Arts Society, a collective of artists who shared similar dreams. Along the way, she hooked up with Outkast who cast her in "Idlewild" where she sang two songs. Later, she would appear on Big Boi's "Got Purp Vol.2," and on "Audition," her first attempt on album singing typical R&B songs. Monae switched lanes and came up with a concept: an Android from the future who falls in love with a human being.
After high school Monae attended the American Musical And Dramatic Academy in New York in hopes of becoming a Broadway actress. Realizing that she'd rather be an artist working with music, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia and worked odd jobs while trying to get a record deal. Fed up with the process, she created and signed herself to her own label, the Wondaland Arts Society, a collective of artists who shared similar dreams. Along the way, she hooked up with Outkast who cast her in "Idlewild" where she sang two songs. Later, she would appear on Big Boi's "Got Purp Vol.2," and on "Audition," her first attempt on album singing typical R&B songs. Monae switched lanes and came up with a concept: an Android from the future who falls in love with a human being.
The Grammy telecast wasn't the first time an audience saw Monae on TV. No, she's made dozens of appearences before Sunday night. When "The Archandroid" dropped, Monae appeared on "The Late Show With David Letterman." She was introduced by P.Diddy, who signed her to Bad Boy after an introduction via Big Boi and Myspace. What was different about Monae's appearance on the Grammys was the size of her audience: 26 million people watched her crowd surf, 26 million times more than the ones who saw her on "SGU: Stargate Universe," where she sang "Many Moons" and played herself/Cindy Mayweather.
That SGU episode was telling because Monae uses science fiction to speculate about her's and humanity's future. The scenes with Monae were photographed in a club visited by a character whose consciousness was transferred from an alien ship hundreds of billions of light years from Earth, to another body
That SGU episode was telling because Monae uses science fiction to speculate about her's and humanity's future. The scenes with Monae were photographed in a club visited by a character whose consciousness was transferred from an alien ship hundreds of billions of light years from Earth, to another body
Monae's Cindy Mayweather character is a symbol of the "Other," the outcast looked down upon by society because she is different. It is a narrative that runs parallel to the black experience here in America where, early in American history, black folks were seen as things and not human beings. In the future where Cindy is from, she is an anomoly, an Other, a thing. She travels back in time to free her kind and change events. Science fiction writers and auteurs Fritz Lang, Issac Asimov and Octavia Butler, are the collaborators here. With their help, Monae who has projected the black American experience into the future, (gauging present technology's trajectory today) tries to predict or warn us about repeating the past. Butler's Hugo award winning novel "Wildseed" is referenced here as is Asimov "I, Robot".
Graphically, the glaring signpost of influences can be seen on the cover art and title of "Metropolis" and "The Archandroid".
"Metropolis" borrows its title from the 1921 sci-fi movie by Fritz Lang. On the cover Monae is depicted as a battered android, with her arms and legs missing. Her mouth and eyes are wide in surprise. In "Metropolis" the silent film, the Cindy Mayweather character is Maria, a creation worshipped in a dystopian society divided into two classes: the thinkers and the workers. These populations do not interact. Monae sees the same future for androids who are servicers, machines, things that evolve consciousness. This concept and iconography carried over to "The Archandroid," the follow-up suites describing Cindy's experiences. The album is a mixture of 50's optimism and romanticism, similar to the real life optimism and expectations of the future as imagined in the 1950s after the destruction and depletion of World War 2, the Space Age. "The Archandroid" cover art is a near replica of Lang's "Metropolis."
"Metropolis" borrows its title from the 1921 sci-fi movie by Fritz Lang. On the cover Monae is depicted as a battered android, with her arms and legs missing. Her mouth and eyes are wide in surprise. In "Metropolis" the silent film, the Cindy Mayweather character is Maria, a creation worshipped in a dystopian society divided into two classes: the thinkers and the workers. These populations do not interact. Monae sees the same future for androids who are servicers, machines, things that evolve consciousness. This concept and iconography carried over to "The Archandroid," the follow-up suites describing Cindy's experiences. The album is a mixture of 50's optimism and romanticism, similar to the real life optimism and expectations of the future as imagined in the 1950s after the destruction and depletion of World War 2, the Space Age. "The Archandroid" cover art is a near replica of Lang's "Metropolis."
(Maria/Cindy Mayweather in a scene from Fritz Lang's Scifi silent film "Metropolis.")
"Alice in Wonderland" is another influence of Monae's. Her artist collective, The Wondaland Arts Society, is named after the dimension Alice visits in the Lewis Carol classic. In addition to Lewis Carol, Monae is also influenced by a sci-fi creation of David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust. She's also influenced by James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Prince, whom she opened for on his recent Welcome to America Tour.
All in all, Janelle Monae is a brilliant performer and visionary unlike anything black music has seen since Sun Ra.
"Alice in Wonderland" is another influence of Monae's. Her artist collective, The Wondaland Arts Society, is named after the dimension Alice visits in the Lewis Carol classic. In addition to Lewis Carol, Monae is also influenced by a sci-fi creation of David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust. She's also influenced by James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Prince, whom she opened for on his recent Welcome to America Tour.
All in all, Janelle Monae is a brilliant performer and visionary unlike anything black music has seen since Sun Ra.
Sci-fi author Ocatvia Butler is one of Monae's influences. Butler wrote about gender, time travel and race. "Wild Seed," "Clays Ark" and "Kindred" are books exploring the themes Monae sings about.
One alter-ego Monae is interested in David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, an androgynous, conceptual being from the future of the 1970's. Monae's dress and appearance are often described as androgynous and un-feminine.
Sci-fi author Isaac Asimov most well known work is "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", better known as the "I, Robot" film starring Will Smith. Consciousness in androids is a central theme explored on Monae's "Metropolis" and "The ArchAndroid".
Monae's second album, the EP "Metropolis: Suite 1: The Chase." The EP introduced us to Cindy Mayweather, an android on the run because loving a human is illegal in her society.
JANELLE MONAE IS A HOT AND THATS COMING FROM YOUR BOI SEAN-DA KID
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