Can I be honest? I've never heard a Janelle Monae album. Never really felt the need to. Now don't get it twisted I know who shorty is. In fact, I thought shorty was dope on Kast's Idlewild album and I always thought her song "Tightrope" was dope but nuthin' about her ever screamed out to me to wanna hear more. So what changed for me this go 'round with her new album Dirty Computer infiltrating my rotation? I wish I could tell you something deep like her new video "Pynk" spoke to me in such a way that it became my God given goal to listen "Dirty Computer" or that her coming out as a pansexual intrigued me so much that I HAD to hear more of her story. But ya'll know me...I ain't deep. I just happened to wanna hear some new music and shorty just happened to have a new album out and viola...we're here. So let's see what this "Dirty Computer" is hittin' foe.
"Dirty Computer" sets off with the title track and has Janelle setting the tone for the pop extravaganza the album's about to take you on, "Crazy Classic Life" has Janelle looking for a world that allows you to be you over some doooooope bass playing, "I am not America's nightmare, I am the American dream, just let me live my life." "Take A Byte" is dope & helps to keep the pop party going, "Django Jane" has Janelle throwing her name in the ring for the nicest female MC in the game, "already got a oscar for the casa, runnin down grammys with the family, prolly give the tony to the homies, prolly get a emmy dedicated to the/highly melanated, archandroid, we highly melanated, archandroid/Jamanati they still jammin, box office numbers and they doing outstanding, runnin outta space in my damn bandwagon, remember whey they used to say I look to mannish?"
The album's third single "Pynk" is just flat out BANANAS and stays on repeat, "Make Me Feel" has Prince's DNA all over it and is a banger while "I Got the Juice" featuring Pharrell has Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" written ALL over it but it's dope as hell. The Organized Noize produced "I Like That" sounds just as dope as you'd expect this collabo to be and has Janelle breaking down here steez, "I don't care what I look like but I feel good, better than amazing and better that I could/told the whole world I'm the venom and the antidote, take a different type of girl to keep the world afloat/cause I'm crazy and I'm sexy and I'm cool, little rough around the edges but I keep it smooth/I'm always left of center and that's right where we belong, I'm the random minor note you hear in major songs." "Don't Judge Me" slows things down and has Janelle opening up "even though you tell me you love me, I'm afraid that you just love my disguise/taste me fears and light your candle to my raging fire of broken desire/but don't judge me, I know I got issues but they drown when I kiss you/don't judge me baptize me with ocean, recognize my devotion" and "American" ends the album and has Janelle breaking down how this great country of ours looks at women, "I like my woman in the kitchen, I teach my children superstitions/I keep my two guns on my blue nightstand, a pretty young thang she can wash my clothes, but she'll never ever wear my pants."
But my favorite banger on "Dirty Computer" is the Zoe Kravitz featured "Screwed" which has them flipping the word screwed back and forth between sex and how our country's is right now, "I hear the sirens calling and the bombs are falling in the streets, we're all screwed/I don't care you fucked the world up now we'll fuck it all back down/let's get screwed, I don't care we'll put water in your guns, we'll do it all for fun." And it only get doper when the song gets chopped and screwed at the end and has Janelle back to straight spittin, "hundred men telling me cover up myu areolas, while they blocking equal pay sippin on their coca colas/fake news fake boob fake food, what's real, still in the matrix eatin on the blue pills/the devil met with Russia and they just made a deal/we was maching through the street they were blocking every bill, I'm tired of hoteps trying to tell me how to feel."
About 10 years ago I made a New Years Resolution to admit when I was wrong because maaaaaaaan did I have a hard time doing that. Nowadays it's nuthin for me to admit when I'm wrong. I can do it with my eyes closed. Now here's the thing, I wasn't "technically" wrong about Janelle Monae cause I never said she was wack or nuthn like that. It's just her music didn't necessarily speak to me. Welp, after listening to "Dirty Computer" Ms. Monae's (I gotta put some respect on her name) music is mos def speaking to me loud and clear. And I can openly admit that not listening in the past to Ms. Monae's music is exactly what I was doing wrong. But guess what? If you know me, then you KNOW that I don't make the same mistake twice, so Ms. Monae's music will always have an open seat at the table with me.
4 outta 5 mics
No comments
Post a Comment