Janelle

Janelle Monáe has been racking up the hits for a decade. This year, she opened up about her art and her life – and showed us a future that celebrates all kinds of female.

- Kaitlyn Greenidge

In 2019 it feels like the world is at last prepared for Janelle Monáe. Eleven years ago, her EP, Metropolis: Suit 1 (The Chase), arrived as if from another continent, even planet. The layered, literary R&B album referenced classic space operas like Star Trek, and the works of David Bowie and Prince. It seemed to foretell a world where black girls could imagine themselves without limits. I first heard about Janelle around then, from a much cooler colleague. I remember listening to ‘Many Moons’, the single that merited her first Grammy nomination, as my colleagues and I traded visions of black self-determination.

It was 2008, before the social media heyday, when mass portraits of black identities were still controlled by a narrow-minded media complex. But Janelle kept working her own grooves anyway. Next came The ArchAndroid in 2010, which broke the Billboard Top 20 with tracks so infectious even former US First Lady Michelle Obama put them on her workout playlist.

It didn’t occur to me then to wonder where in the world Janelle had come from. But as I reached out to interview her, it all of a sudden seemed essential to know. Every superhero has an origin story.