Janelle Monáe stopped by the Z100 studios to talk with Maxwell about her new music and the meaning behind her third studio album Dirty Computer. "I think I've always been honest and vulnerable in my work," the multi-hyphenate star said about her album. "I felt like I had room to be even more honest and vulnerable and just move in different spaces that I had not tapped into before."
Janelle went on to say that sometimes it's hard for herself to let go during the creation process because she's a perfectionist. "I spend a lot of time in the future," she said. "It's important for those who do that to come back to the present."
She also spoke about how her experience as "a young black woman in America" shaped this album. "There are so many things that I would see that were upsetting, that were exciting. A lot of this writing process stemmed from the sting of what it feels like to have your rights trampled on as a woman," she said. "Take artist out of it. What's going on in the political climate, when you feel like women's rights are being trampled on, when you feel like minorities rights are being trampled on. Dirty Computer represents those who are oppressed and I want it to be a celebratory album."
If she could sum up what the album is in just one sentence, though, it would be that it "embraces what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable." She also said though she knows people look up to her and that many people will be able to relate to her music, she doesn't put too much pressure on herself to always get everything right. She knows she's human and that she'll make mistakes. What she does aim for, though, is that "through my mistakes I hope I make people feel comfortable in bouncing back from theirs."