"I try not to get too caught up in who I am," says Janelle Monáe, her signature hairdo a wedge of nappy-chic, small legs crossed primly, hands clasped at the knee as if she were sitting at a tea party for the queen. "I try to find that balance of taking care of self and being selfless. [But] I do find comfort in embracing things that might make others feel a little uncomfortable." Yeah, that comes across. Since the 2007 release of her debut EP, Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase, Atlanta-based singer and performance artist Janelle Monáe has been producing wildly unleashed conceptual music, if not especially of the sing-along-in-the-car variety, and serving up live shows that seldom fail to arouse genuine astonishment and admiration from fans and critics alike. She is a psycho-inferno of talent with Tasmanian Devil energy, ferocious charisma and big ideas. Trust me, you're gonna want this one on your team come the apocalypse.
Already much has been written about Monáe's influences, both aesthetic and musical -- Grace Jones, Andre 3000, Donna Summer, David Bowie, P Funk -- and indeed, her Afro-futuristic-alternative sound (which earned her a 2008 Grammy nod for her song "Many Moons") includes a good deal of easily identifiable elements. Ironically, though, Monáe didn't listen to a lot of music growing up. "Honestly, I didn't," she says, perhaps a little surprised herself in retrospect. "I wish I had." Instead, she recalls having always sought out quiet spaces as a child. "I've always loved silence. I've always tried to find those places where there was not a lot of chaos going on." For Monáe, who is no joke about what she wears (currently only black and white—usually a white shirt, black tie, black pants and saddle shoes), uniforms have come to represent her rejection of chaos; they are the anti-chaos—the walls against which her anomalistic mind can push while she goes about creating and maintaining the persona that is Janelle Monáe.
White blazer and shirt by D&G, tie by Prada and gloves by DavidElfin.
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