Music

Janelle Monáe Shares “PYNK,” a Dynamic New Song Featuring Grimes

It’s been five years since we’ve received an album from Janelle Monáe. Her 2018 effort Dirty Computer follows The Electric Lady and like her past two albums voyage to a futuristic land that only Monáe can see. Last month, Janelle Monáe shared two songs, “Make Me Feel” and “Django Jane,” which were her attempts at bringing women together during a time of reckoning where women are the forces behind Hollywood’s Time’s Up initiative and movements like the Black Lives Matter.

“PYNK” featuring Grimes premiered as the World Record on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show. You can listen to it below. The two worked together on “Venus Fly” from Grimes’ Art Angels.

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In an earlier interview with Annie Mac on Beats 1, Monáe revealed Prince’s involvement on Dirty Computer. The late singer helped create the synths on “Make Me Feel,” which certainly feels like he lends his touch from “Kiss” to Janelle’s newest project. For a large part of her career, Monáe has felt like she was lightyears ahead of her time, with themes of cyborgs and afrofuturism steeped heavily in her music. The 30-second trailer accompanying Dirty Computer is her version of a dystopian reality that doesn’t feel like a distant reality given the changes in administration since 2013’s The Electric Lady. Monáe has always used her music as a form of activism and it looks like Dirty Computer is coming right on time.

Watch the video below.

Kristin Corry is a staff writer at Noisey. Follow her on Twitter.