DOWNLOADSo, Janelle Monae's latest opus leaked and Janelle asked her fans
not to download it. Why? Prolly cuz she thinks if we download it we won't actually buy it (which is probably true), but honestly if we don't download it, we prolly won't buy it either.
The archives can tell the story of my adoration of Ms. Monae. Her song "Peachtree Blues" was featured on the very first
Real Niggas Light Candles and, short of stalking her TMZ-style, I posted much of her music for the consumption of internet fiends the world over, thus helping to raise her capital as an avant-garde artist worth paying attention to. I'm not taking sole credit for her success, but I am saying that without these here internets, I doubt she'd be worrying about people bootlegging her album right now. We stoked the flames of what was a local phenomenon and helped her take her show from the
AUC stage to stages all over the country.
When I saw her in Philly back in '08 with The Roots and Santogold (as she was still known at the time), so many ppl came for the sole purpose of seeing Janelle without even knowing any of her music. How'd they even know that she was worth seeing? Where'd the buzz come from?
Internet bootleggers.
Call it internet Reaganomics, but the trickle down effect left the streets wet with anticipation for the new-age, post-modern heir apparent to Erykah Badu. We lamented her label woes and came out in droves to support any stage she stepped her saddle oxford-clad feet on. So I'm a lil disappointed that my twitter timeline had a request from Ms. Monae asking us to not download her album.
Isn't that why you're in the position you're in now? Isn't that where all that show money came from? Iunno, I expect it from label execs who are still trying to figure out what QWERTY is, but not from someone whose claim to fame was a high speed lane on the information superhighway. An android should know better than to fight against technology. Ask Cindy Mayweather.
Rant aside, I'm still gonna cop the album (and I'm staunchly against the practice of purchasing anything that can be gotten for FREE). And I honestly think her other fans will too. It's the nature of grass-roots artists such as herself--her fans feel invested in her and want to see her win. It's why we voraciously downloaded any and every megabyte of music we could find of hers, why we paid our hard-earned money to watch her razzle and dazzle on the stage like a fireball of talent. It's why we told somebody to tell somebody to tell sumn bout it.
So download while the link is up (and before the google bots delete it). Disfruta, and if you feel so inclined, cop it on May 18th. She'd appreciate it.
