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THE NEW GIRL - Janelle Monae

I stumbled on this artist by browsing some other sites and I saw a lot of artists (major) giving this sis her props...so I had to check her out...and I can say, she is refreshing to the industry.

The story goes...Janelle Monae was performing at Puffy's Atlanta restaurant a while ago...Big Boi (OutKast) saw her and immediately knew he wanted to work with her.  From there, she did a song or two on the IDLEWILD movie soundtrack. From there she was on her grind putting out "suites" of music.  Now by her definition, a CD Suite is a collection of about 4 singles on one CD.  This format is geared toward the iPod culture that is driven by singles and not whole albums.  The strategy was fantastic. Atlanta latched onto her and soon, so did Puffy (he actually sent her a message on myspace...said she never responded but he still caught up with her - let this be a testimony not to sleep on myspace!).  She is with Bad Boy now and the rest is history.

Her style is, in my opinion, a combination of Andre3000 + Gnarls Barkley and a pinch of Grace Jones. I absolutely love it.  I respect that she has put it down in such a way, almost like nobody can stand next to her.  She has truly revived and inspired this music industry.  

I feel inspired by her from the angle of an independent artist...and my views are becoming more optimistic.  From Janelle, I've learned that there really isn't anything wrong with the industry, sure it has changed, but the problem is how people are approaching it (with an old way of thinking)...Whatever worked in the past is not the formula for today.  New age, new strategy.  I dig how her promotion, production, work was geared to the iPod culture, by focusing on singles instead of whole albums.  So many can naysay, but hey - it worked for her!  I think there will be more innovative breakthroughs like Janelle's in this era of music.

I'm relieved.

Cheers.
Traycee Lynn
Editor, Founder
since 2002