Janelle Monáe has opened up about baring her skin during the rollout of her upcoming album — fittingly titled The Age of Pleasure — in a new interview with Rolling Stone, saying she feels “much happier when my titties are out.”
The artist’s latest single, “Lipstick Lover,” is an ode to queer liberation accompanied by a decidedly NSFW music video that features her topless at one point. For the magazine’s newest cover story, Monáe spoke about feeling more comfortable of late letting it all hang out, saying, “I’m much happier when my titties are out and I can run around free.”
As Rolling Stone points out, Monáe also “elegantly wrapped her breasts in beads and mesh this past awards season.” In the press photo for her album announcement (see above) and the cover shoot, the artist barely covers them with her hands.
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On a related note, Monáe also spoke about how “Lipstick Lover” — which we named Song of the Week — was inspired by wild parties thrown at Wondaland West, the LA compound where she lives and records. “I have a whole spreadsheet with 50 to almost 100 experiences that I had at this party,” she said. “I wear red lipsticks at the parties. I’ve had moments where if me and a girl or an energy… want to engage, you’re going to see lipstick.”
Once Monáe began recording the album after filming Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, those parties became a testing ground for new material. “I was like, ‘OK, if we have a party in spring of 2022, I want to have records ready,’” she remembered. “‘I want to honor this experience, and be really specific about it.’ The best way to figure it out? ‘Let’s play that shit at the party.’”
Monáe also explained that The Age of Pleasure was inspired by the Black diaspora, including her friends and a “community of folks who are from South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, the Caribbean, Atlanta, LA, Chicago.” She added, “Seeing all of us together in our Blackness, in the love that we had in our eyes for each other. People from the continent fuck around with trap from Atlanta. You know what I’m saying?”
The Age of Pleasure arrives June 9th via Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic Records, and pre-orders are ongoing. It also includes the previous single “Float.”
Read the full interview at Rolling Stone.