Janelle Monae
Janelle Monae
Janelle Monáe Robinson, known professionally as Janelle Monáe, is an American musical recording artist, actress, model signed to Bad Boy Records, Wondaland Arts Society, and Atlantic Records. After making a mark with her first unofficial studio album, The Audition, she publicly debuted with a conceptual EP titled Metropolis: Suite I, which peaked at number 115 on the Billboard 200 in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSoul Singer
Date of Birth1 December 1985
CityKansas City, KS
CountryUnited States of America
I think if people genuinely want to help ... that'll shine through, no matter what color or what race. We cannot see race before compassion.
I always feel the need to give the unfiltered truth, (or) what I think is the truth, at least.
I won't sit here and say I've never had a pimple, but I try to have a really great diet, you know, lots of vegetables and fish. And I think stress plays a huge part too.
Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings.
I'm always thinking about young people first when I'm writing music. Whenever I can reach that young person and inspire them to go after their own dreams, start their own movement just like I did with Wondaland. Starting their own tribe and showing people that we are not all the same, we're not all monolithic. I think that's what it's all about for me.
There are some groups that for years and years have not gotten the rights that the majority of human beings have, and it's important to continue to draw these parallels so that when we think about our future we can change some of the lives of people who love differently than we do, look different than we do, who come from a different class. It's all about bringing awareness to how important it is to be accepting of people, and there will be oppression if one group thinks they're more important or superior.
I really just want to encourage and inspire people to use their freedom in a positive way and in a way that is inspiring to other people. I want to continue to pass down the seeds of change within the world. I think that it can start with just one person. Just like a rumor can get carried on, so can inspiration.
I always think about the next generation and creating a different blueprint for them. That's my goal: to let them know there's another way.
When I was growing up, both my grandmothers would play the organ, and we would all sing.
It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.
There are months when I'm on a plane every day!
I just think my own ambition would not allow me to sit on the gifts that my creator had given me. And so that's when I realized that I could actually go away.
My message is that I want to reach the people - the people who work each and every day.
Once you find what you like, it's like it worked yesterday, it works today, it'll work tomorrow.