Buzz in 2009: Janelle Monae

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.

Buzz in 2009: Janelle Monae  stream music mp3

While Janelle Monae has been making music for years, 2009 will be the year for her. Earlier in 2008, Janelle Monae inked a deal with P. Diddy and his Bad Boy Records and re-released Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Speciel Edition). Originally, Monae planned to release four “suites” ever so often, tagged with the Metropolis moniker, opposed to releasing a full  length debut. But somewhere along the line, her plans changed, presumably after signing herself off to Bad Boy.

Janelle Monae is now set to release a full length album in 2009′s first quarter. Aren’t excited yet? Take a listen to some of her stuff. 2008′s Metropolis is an amazing seven-song-set and an ubran masterpiece. The Chase Suite is an adventurous robo-Soap Opera that centers around the forbidden love of an android named Cindi who falls in love with a human named Anthony.

Metropolis features Janelle Monae’s beautiful singing and funky beats on stellar tracks like “Many Moons” and “Sincerely, Jane.” It’s hard to categorize this album because it’s hard to categorize Monae herself. The best way to describe Janelle Monae might just be to think of a female Andre 3000 who sings as well as he can rap.

With a set like this and Bad Boy’s money to back her next album, one can only dream of the possibilities: will Andre 3000 and Janelle Monae share the mic (once again?), will Mark Ronson do some work with her? What about Amy Winehouse?  That has one has been a fantasy of mine for quite a while now, actually.

Here’s why she will be big in 2009:

Sincerely, Jane.
Many Moons

{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

Christian December 16, 2008 at 11:54 am

Holy shit! What is this? My ears are multi-orgasming.

Reply

Billy E. December 16, 2008 at 11:56 am

“Sincerely, Jane” is too good! Wow. Just, wow.

Did I say Wow?

Another PMA-approved artist, another day, another eargasm.

Reply

Anonymous December 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Nice, very nice. I dig her!

Reply

ryan97ou December 16, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Bern December 16, 2008 at 12:31 pm

yay Paste Agrees… yawn.

But this chick is serious. Hot shit

Reply

Mikey Mars December 16, 2008 at 12:54 pm

Good find Luis.

It’s a cliche, but Janelle is a breath of fresh here.

“Sincerely Jane” is especially good.

Reply

kyle menard December 16, 2008 at 3:07 pm

i found janelle three weeks ago after browsing around on diddy’s myspace page and was blown away by her. she’s like outcast meets adele meets …herself! cd is 7 bucks and is amazing! “mr. president” and “many moons” -oh snap, the jams! it’s funny i was going to write to PMA about her….

Reply

sambk December 16, 2008 at 4:04 pm

Many Moons = my favorite song of this year !!!

Reply

J December 16, 2008 at 4:38 pm

awesomeness

she looks like a young Lauryn Hill
can’t wait for her album!
thanks

Reply

Jordan December 16, 2008 at 5:15 pm

JUST NOW!?!? Janelle is so fantastic. I love Violet Stars Happy Hunting, and of course Many Moons. And how can you not love that adorable face/haircut?

Reply

Jordan December 16, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Sincerly Jane has also been a favorite of mine; when the claps start coming in the pre-chorus…WOW.

Reply

Half Note December 16, 2008 at 5:59 pm

haha totally agree w/ the Andre 3000 comparison. It was the first thing I thought when I first saw her music video.

Reply

nick December 17, 2008 at 2:45 am

Nice to see I’m not the only one.. and those two tracks really are killers. Thought this year was going to be her year with the re-release of the EP, so hopefully the album can really get the word out. Just pray she doesn’t get messed with too much to become more ‘accessible’, you know Diddy will have his hands all over it.

Reply

Blake December 17, 2008 at 7:21 pm

My favourite JM songs:

Violet Stars Happy Hunting
+
Many Moons

back to back is pretty fantastic.
She is single-handedly the next Outkast.

GQ did an article on her. If she doesn’t generate buzz, that’s okay with me. I will continue to enjoy her.

Reply

nick December 18, 2008 at 12:17 am

Forgot to mention, there’s a music video/short film for ‘Many Moons’ and it pretty much sums up how awesome Janelle is in the space of 6-odd minutes.

Reply

nick December 18, 2008 at 12:18 am

I fail at hyperlinks… how embarrassing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-ugv9kxG0

Reply

Luis Tovar December 18, 2008 at 11:33 am

hyperlinks are the future nick.
:)

thank you, that was awesome.

Reply

Luis Tovar December 18, 2008 at 11:34 am

i fail at commas.

Reply

Zilla December 18, 2008 at 8:23 pm

I hate to sound bitter (although I probably am), but you’re a bit late on her- no?

Reply

Michael W. December 18, 2008 at 9:43 pm

Hot dang. She rocks. I’m a little sad that I didn’t find out about her til now though. Thanks!

Reply

Luis Tovar December 18, 2008 at 10:29 pm

@ Zilla: Admittedly.

Reply

Zilla December 19, 2008 at 5:36 pm

I still love you!

Reply

jkp2102 December 24, 2008 at 8:40 pm

wow i am so happy to see that you posted about her…ive been a fan for a while now and seeing her on concert was amazing…so many nice comments too

Reply

Leave a Comment

A staggering 453 people entered the last contest! I knew you guys would have a taste for vinyl, so I’m planning on giving away some of my favorite 2008 releases…

Keep Reading...

Remember: SPREAD THE WORD: Pretty Much Amazing is calling out bands everywhere (especially ones who email me wanting their material on this blog), COVER “WOMANIZER” AND GET PMA-EXPOSURE. So last…

Keep Reading...

Maroon 5’s remix album, Call and Response, is (in concept) very cool. There are various artists remixing M5 songs, with widely differing backgrounds. From Pharell to the Cool Kids; DJ…

Keep Reading...

This probably made my Christmas. No, it really did. Lily Allen is probably my favorite British girl vocalist at the moment, and listening to her acoustic rendition of Britney’s “Womanizer”…

Keep Reading...

Did you hear that the incredible Hot Chip are releasing a new EP on December 22nd will Robert Wyatt and Goose creatively titled With Robert Wyatt and Goose EP? This…

Keep Reading...

Got an email last night. It made me feel good. It made me feel this excitement I haven’t felt in a while. N.A.S.A. (North America South America) is an international…

Keep Reading...

Read about this about a week ago; I thought it was ridiculous then, and I still think it’s ridiculous now. So here’s what has been going down: Joe Satriani is…

Keep Reading...

I wonder when I’m going to hear another song from Bluepring 3 that I actually like. I’m still waiting on the Kanye West collab “Haters” and the epic-sounding “Swagga Like…

Keep Reading...

I think it’s safe to say that one can’t properly critique/review an album without being familiar with the artist’s previous work (assuming they have any). So as I sit here…

Keep Reading...