Janelle Monáe’s ‘The ArchAndroid’ Invited Us To Free Our Minds

On her debut album, R&B and pop disruptor Janelle Monáe predicted an Orwellian future 15 years before it manifested. The nonbinary artist–who uses she/her and they/them pronouns–foresaw that oppressive forces would overcome marginalized beings amid rapid technological advancement. That antithetical stress would prevent an awakening among Androids, barring them from coming into consciousness. But through a metaphorical storyline of restricted freedom, love prevailed between sentient character Sir Anthony Greendown and righteous android Cindi Mayweather, to form a connection strong enough to resist the Other. More than the album’s deus ex machina concept, The ArchAndroid expanded the possibilities of Black music.

The ArchAndroid is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Janelle Monáe

Before Monáe made her commercial breakthrough, the Kansas City native was known through word-of-mouth in Atlanta in the mid-2000s. The vocalist briefly attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, dropping out to head south for a creative renewal. It was in Atlanta that Monáe aligned with her eventual co-songwriters and producers Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightening, both of whom encouraged the singer to pull inspiration from epochal 1920s sci-fi silent film Metropolis. Through the movie’s lens on the disastrous effects of social division, Monáe reframed the synopsis to fit her anti-fascist ArchAndroid universe. Most of all, Monáe wanted to jam.

Before launching the Wondaland Arts Society, the Midwesterner already did the unexpected as an early member of Big Boi’s Purple Ribbon All-Stars crew. After solidifying herself among Dirty South rhymers, Monáe teased ArchAndroid on 2007 EP Metropolis: The Chase Suite. With a whimsical flavor and pop-rock nature, the EP foretold Greendown and Mayweather’s great escape, along with another one of Monáe’s aliases, radicalist Jane 57821.

Concept aside, Monáe’s vision was distinctive in comparison to mainstream Black music of 2010. A portion of Black pop and R&B artists integrated within the EDM craze to fit the times, while Monáe sought for the ArchAndroid to have a sound that was both classic and timeless. She honed in on the Metropolis motif all while citing the fantastical imaginations of authors like Octavia E. Butler and pioneering jazz Afrofuturist Sun Ra. With The ArchAndroid as a sonic dreamscape, Monáe made room for exploration and invited future progenitors to push the boundaries of reinvention. Monáe once said we’d be living among droids by 2029, and on the LP, she draws the next dimension close.

Monáe also put on a play for the ages. Upon entering The ArchAndroid, you’re thrust into soul and pop bravura that commercial singles “Tightrope” and “Cold War” only winked at. “Suite II Overture” situates itself in Monáe’s operatic compass, over stringed instruments and a whirling piano arrangement that somehow plunge into the bionic funk of “Dance of Die.” In Monáe’s orbit, “these dreams are forever”–and so are her hopes for injustice to cease.

During her ArchAndroid phase, Monáe was known to wear bespoke black and white suits, but on her debut LP, she exhibited a chromatic range. Tonally effulgent songs “Faster” and “Locked Inside” demonstrate Mayweather and Greendown’s fight to preserve their love in spite of the dystopian environment that surrounds them. Mayweather was constructed to be misanthrope, but as Archandroid progresses, so do her motivations towards Greendown–just listen to her yearning on emotive ballad “Sir Greendown.”

Monáe, who made a pompadour and sartorial black and white tuxedos her uniform in 2010, was immersed in an space odyssey aesthetic. The ArchAndroid cover saw her bear the crown as Mayweather, the answer to Metropolis character Maria, an Afrofuturistic characterization that would follow for several more albums. On sophomore album The Electric Lady, Monáe electrified her retro chic style and funk orchestration that became pastiche. Follow-up Dirty Computer put the focus on Jane, who sought refuge from a totalitarian regime and queer inclusivity. Monáe’s most recent album, The Age of Pleasure, shed the expected concept for a sensual grooves and a sapphic romance theme, but ArchAndroid set the precedent on her oeuvre and the boundlessness of her imagination.

“Neon Gumbo” sees Monáe playing on the reverse conclusion of “Darling Nikki” by genre-defying icon Prince, who’d later appear on Electric Lady. The smooth folk of “Oh, Maker” continues to illustrate the fondness between Mayweather and Greendown. But it’s album centerpiece “57821” that sheds light on the isolation the characters feel when forced apart.

Monáe explained it best in an interview with NPR in 2010, describing the marvel of ArchAndroid as an “‘emotion picture’ for the mind.” “I do believe that it will transform you,” she said. “You won’t know it; you’ll have to listen to it maybe a couple times. But I think it prepares your palate for more diverse music.” More than an album, Monáe’s debut is a riveting musical that endures through its against-all-odds love story. In Monáe’s ArchAndroid, Black artists were called forth to transform and step into their individualism.