Janelle Monae
Science Fiction Pop Star By Stewart MasonAfro-Futurist mythology meets smart pop songcraft.
If Lady Gaga is the new Madonna -- someone whose outre look and calculated persona overshadows her skillfully-produced but fundamentally conventional music -- then it would follow that Janelle Monae must be the new Prince. Like her fellow pint-size midwesterner, the young Kansas City native has a striking look (a nearly foot-high pompadour, crisp tuxedos and saddle shoes) and a self-invented mythology. She even followed Prince Rogers Nelson's lead on shortening her stage name; her rarely-used surname is Robinson. And like Prince, her music is surprisingly eclectic, inventive and eccentric, but so firmly rooted in smart pop songcraft that it seems destined for the charts. Early buzz developed around Monae in 2007 when she sang on and co-wrote two of the best songs on Outkast's farewell album Idlewild, but the 2008 EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite introduced a complex Afro-Futurist backstory (involving time travel, android entertainers and artistic suppression) alongside a compelling set of tunes. Full-length debut The ArchAndroid followed to uniformly rapturous reviews in May 2010.
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