Dirty Computer: An Emotion Picture

In 2018, Janelle Monáe released her third studio album “Dirty Computer”. Simultaneously, a 46-minute short film dubbed an "emotion picture" was released. The album has been grouped under the visual album umbrella, similar to that of Melanie Martinez’s “K-12” and Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”. “Dirty Computer” is a concept album, displaying a metaphor for society and the direction American civilization is headed. The computers are humans, including Monáe. The sanitized android is what’s accepted in the film’s fictionalized totalitarian society.

The film opens with Monáe in this futuristic dystopia, strapped to a machine, preparing to have her memories be wiped, or cleaned. “Afro-futurist authors, musicians, and technicians rely on the resilience of black culture to imagine improbable and seemingly impossible futures, new technologies and new uses for old technologies, using tropes of science fiction and fantasy to critique social inequality”, says Cassandra L. Jones, in her essay on Monáe. Jones describes Monáe as “digital griot”: a storyteller; a model of rhetorical excellence in a multimedia age. Each song on the album tells a story and is tied together through the film. And, fun fact, the title track ‘Dirty Computer’, features Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and featured prominently in the film is actress Tessa Thompson who was in a three year relationship with Monáe.

*Cassandra L. Jones. “Tryna Free Kansas City”: The Revolutions of Janelle Monáe as Digital Griot. CL Jones. Bowling Green State University, 2013.

The song ‘Crazy, Classic, Life’ samples Martin Luther King Jr. quoting the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Sean McMillan performs a sermon in which he quotes King in the song’s opening. The song presents issues of race and discrimination both in the lyrics and in the visual portion. “I am not America’s nightmare, I’m the American dream” sings Monáe. The melody, however, is more fun and upbeat. Match that with the haunting lyrics, you’ve got a great exploration of Monáe’s musical duality.

The song ‘Pynk’, featuring Grimes, samples the Aerosmith tune of the same name from 1997. Monáe has described the song as, "a celebration of creation, self love, sexuality and pussy power". The color pink "unites all of humanity" because it is the color "found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere." I once asked an ex-boyfriend “why, do you think, she spelled pink with a y?” and he replied with “more vaginal”...moving on. But in fairness, there are giant pants seen in the music video that look quite…flowery…There are no accidents. Janelle Monáe knows what she’s doing. “Deep inside, we’re all just pink.” A powerful, yet simple message.

Favorite song on the album: Crazy, Classic, Life