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Renegade, innovator, modernizer, leading light – just a few words to try and home in what it is, exactly, Janelle Monáe is.

She most certainly is no stranger to the music business, but yet she’s still relatively unknown – especially outside of the U, S of A. We think this chick is gonna blow up in some seriously massive ways and you’ll be hearing her name a lot more soon!

Janelle Monáe is an R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Classical, Jazz, Pop, Opera, Soul, Futuristic Rock singer who’s style is actually pretty hard to distinguish – even after mentioning all those genres! It’s hard to compare this lady too, she is pretty much like nothing we’ve/you’ve ever heard…Janelle Monáe has had us excited for quite some time now and we think it’s about time we let the secret out the bag!

The self professed “alien from outta space” grew up in Kansas and likens herself to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz [guess it doesn’t help that like her, Dorothy was also a Kansas native!]. Monáe seems obsessed with fantasy, make-believe, future and other worlds – this is very much represented in her music.

Her imagination sensibility started early at the tender age of just nine, when Monáe decided that the world should be a different colour: “preferably purple” she suggests. Thinking back on it now, Janelle says, “I was different. Of course, I did the normal, little-diva-in-training things like running up phone bills by dialing 1-800-Be-A-Star and singing Anita Baker’s ‘Sweet Love” for anyone that would listen…But I was also on some different stuff…there was a lot of confusion and nonsense where I grew up, so I reacted by creating my own little world…I began to see how much music could change lives and I began to dream about a world where every day was like anime and Broadway, where music fell from the sky and anything could happen” – this quirkily life attitude is just a sample of what was to come when Janelle began channelling all that energy into music.

She began the search to find the world she had so immaculately created as a child by moving to New York City and attending The American Musical and Dramatics Academy – a musical theatre program. It was during this course that she fell in love with soaring melodies, and harmonic possibilities of classical music. Once the theatre program had ended Janelle, never one to sit still for too long, uprooted and moved to Atlanta, home to the progressive soul and hip hop movement “Musically, I was ready to do something big, wild and adventurous. And I knew if Atlanta was big enough for the vision of Outkast, it’d be big enough for me”.

Within eight months of arriving in Atlanta, Janelle had met Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Chuck Lighting of Wondaland Productions and begun work on her masterful debut album “Metropolis”. “Metropolis is the place I’ve been dreaming about all these years! A city inside your head. It’s an adventure the music brings to life.” The world Janelle created as child seems a perfect reflection of the albums main theme: A Cybergirl’s struggle to love [a human boy] in a the futuristic city: Metropolis. With such a detailed and innovative subject matter, it is no serendipity that it sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before and could not be further away from your average R&B album.  

Janelle Monáe is not only an innovator in that she creates truly unique music, but is also a modernizer in the way she has decided to release it. Her “Metropolis” record will not be delivered to the hungry public as a traditional one disc set, no, no, this Cybergirl is releasing content quarterly in the shape of “suites”.

“The concept of the suite release was inspired by the observation that the youth of the iPod generation no longer buy or listen to entire albums. They listen to playlists. They grab their favourite three to four songs from a particular album, add those to a playlist, and then discard the rest of the album like yesterday’s news.

In order to re-excite the public, the label is forced to do guest spots and remixes, additional videos and deluxe CD releases….all in a vain attempt to intrigue the record buyer again.

…Like successful serial programs such as Lost or Heroes, this release schedule allows dynamic artists such as Janelle Monáe to always stay fresh: she always has a new chapter or musical world to visit, a new song raiding blogs and earbuds.

As one can imagine, this suite model continually excites the consumer and music lover, while creating countless opportunities for Ms. Monáe to experiment artistically and grow creatively with her audience”

Do you now understand why (with no exaggeration) we’re in love with this girl? She’s doing something totally original (musically) and is doing so in a very Prince-like way – Keeping everything [including it’s distribution] fresh, contemporary and interesting. It’s working too! “Metropolis Suite 1: The Chase” has got us impatiently waiting for more! The first chapter/suite was released way back last August (told you she’s been around a while!) and generated a huge amount of underground buzz, becoming many peoples “album-of-the year” pick and selling over 10,000 copies.

While in Atlantic Janelle began working with Big Boi of Outkast [co-producer of her “Metropolis Suites”] on the celebrated song “Call the Law” on the OutKast album “Idlewild” – if you haven’t heard it, Janelle basically sings the hell out of it! It’s pretty extraordinary! Impressing Outkast is a pretty big deal and judging by the praise both Big Boi and André 3000 has given her, they’re pretty damn impressed!

“Ms. Monáe has one of the most enchanting voices of our generation” – Andre 3000 

“Janelle’s got her own way of making the room glow with her personality and music” – Big Boi

Monáe’s voice cannot be described with one word – it’s soulful, powerful, trained, natural, big, small, different, exceptional, electrifying, thrilling, dope, fresh, new and any other word you could possibly use to describe something that is truly inimitable.

Her music is again – like nothing you’ve heard. Imagine Outkast, channelling Prince, who is high off of hearing James Brown for the first time, sitting in a bar in the year 3010, listening to a futuristic Ella Fitzgerald singing live while Stevie ‘Of the Future’ Wonder plays the keys…Yea, try and imagine that! Luckily, you don’t have to, she’s here – Janelle Monáe is THAT sound.

ALL this and she’s JUST getting started!

In late 2007, Janelle Monáe signed with Diddy’s “Bad Boy” Label via her own Wandaland Arts Society label. “I’ve been blessed with artists like Joceci, Notorious B.I.G and Mary J. Blige, in the past, but this artist right here…you’ve just got to see it to believe it. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the Holy Ghost, but that’s the feeling you’re going to feel tonight”, a very excited Diddy tells industry insiders at her showcase gig in NY on April 3rd 2008.

He went on to say: “We’re really breaking [Monáe] in the underground so it has that infectious buzz to it. It’s the sound of her voice, her approach to records, her energy, her performance – she’s something I’ve never seen before, I’ve never seen the package delivered like that” – Yup, that’s what Diddy’s saying!

We’re hoping by bringing Janelle Monáe to you, you too can get as excited as we are about this lady. She is, we are not afraid to keep saying it, unbelievable. We feel like we haven’t just travelled in-time, but have also accidentally got lost in space and have landed in a world that is so alien, but oddly relatable, a world where we’re not entirely sure if we should be scared or animated, confused or feel at home, dazed or comfortable, baffled or content…which ever it is we f**** like it!!

She’s obviously found that world she created when she was 9 and we’re just happy she’s shared the Map on how to get there!

“I feel so blessed. I have so many people I look up to: Bjork, Outkast, Colonel Sanders, Mick Jagger, James Brown, Madonna…I want to take the things they’ve taught me to the stars…”

We have no doubt she will.

Here @ PinBoard, we love sharing the love and so, we’re offering YOU good folks her first suite…

”Metropolis Suite 1: The Chase” is a perfect introduction to Janelle Monáe…Our only recommendation is that you strap up, hold tight and enjoy the ride because you’re about to leave this world and time to arrival somewhere else…Metropolis to be exact!

Click Here To Download “Metropolis Suite 1: The Chase” NOW!

…Enjoy and do let us know what you think.

Peace, Love & Janelle Monáe aka The Cybergirl From Metropolis

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