Prince,  R&B

Prince hips me to Janelle Monáe

There are lots of ways to hear about a new artist. Find a cool blog posting. Hear it on the radio. Have a friend tell you about it. Or in this case, have one of your favorite artists wait outside of the Viper Room for the artist’s gig to end so he can talk to her.

Prince drove down the hill to the Sunset Strip last night to meet with Atlanta-based, futuristic R&B singer Janelle Monáe after her gig. E Online found it newsworthy enough to write about it, and I apparently find it newsworthy enough to repeat it here. It’s just that I often wonder what my purple friend is up to. The man still doesn’t have a functional official web site, which is stupefying to me. For all the fuss he makes about people posting his images, songs, and videos on the internet, you’d think that he would have something to offer us. But nope, still zilch on the internet front.

But on to Janelle. The music is unique, fresh, funky, and you can hear influences from Prince to Outkast to smooth singers like Shirley Bassey (she sang some of the James Bond themes). Janelle was recently signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, which is okay as long as he keeps his paws off. I don’t feel like hearing his “yeah”s and “uh”s in her songs.

Janelle’s well on her way to establishing herself as the next best thing on the scene. As usual, I’m a little behind. So thanks Mr. Nelson for swinging by the Viper Room last night. I owe you. No, not actual money. Man, that Prince… always looking for a payday!

Sites: Official | MySpace

7 Comments

  • shqippy

    Cool! Great things could happen with those two together. I just came across her in the new Paste Magazine. Promising stuff, and rumors of a full-length in early 2009.

  • Marco aka bagan

    Yeah; thank you Pete. Janelle’s music is definitely cool … visually she looks more like Grace-Jones-Meets-The-Hip-Hop-Kids to me … not realy meeting Mr Nelson’s usual latin sophisticated beauty standards …

  • LizDexia

    I’m sorry, I don’t get it. I hear a possibly good act buried in lame scifi cum Broadway overarrangements with no rock, no roll and very little soul. I think she my have a good voice and some idea about fusing pop – rock – hiphop, but it’s not on the EP. Love the musician’s arm in the photo,though!

  • Modulus

    To LizDexia (and anyone else for that matter), if you don’t dig the EP concept or arrangements but are still interested in what she can offer, check out her first project “The Audition”. She’s for real!

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