Janelle Monae For Rolling Out Magazine June 2011

Janelle Monae covers this month's issue of Rolling Out magazine, revealing that she's been working on her next album. Janelle, who has creative control over all her photo shoots, brings a bit of magic to the urban mag which you can see in the photos below. Read on for interview excerpts.

On her next album: “This album will have very strong concepts and bigger ideas and the music will just go forward to another level. It will still be, I believe, relatable to the people. We have really big ideas, I must say, and we’re just trying to make sure we execute them properly."

On the message of her music: “Music is a weapon. It’s a tool that can take you all over the world. I’m very careful with the themes that I choose. When I write music, I’m thinking about the people. I want to create music that becomes their choice of drug whenever they want to feel euphoria. Whenever they are depressed or oppressed, I hope that they are inspired by it, instead of doing man-made drugs that are not healthy spiritually or physically. There is power in words, so you have to be careful with what you are promoting and what you are saying.”

“We will live in a world with androids because of the rapid speed of technology,” Monae says. “We will have to figure out how we will all get along. I love speaking about the future because it gives us a chance to rewrite history. The music is the heart of it all. Everything connects back to love, respect for each other and freedom.”

“Music is a stimulant to getting in tune with your imagination,” Monae says. “Art inspires art. A movie can inspire a song, and a painting can inspire a performance. It’s important to exercise that and write as much as you can. Albert Einstein said it best, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else is.”

Photos by Hannibal Matthews

Courtesy of Rolling Out