Janelle Monáe is gracing the cover of Rolling Stone’s Pride Issue. On it, the singer is adorned in a gold chain hairpiece and uses her hands to cover herself. Recently, she stirred up a frenzy on social media by going topless during a performance. Her latest video release for “Lipstick Lover” also had people talking as the singer celebrated her body and those of other women. Now, the singer and actress is baring it all in her latest interview. A continued departure from the buttoned up suits fans previously grew to expect from her.
“I’m much happier when my titties are out, and I can run around free,” the “Glass Onion” star said.
During the Rolling Stone cover interview, Monáe discusses how the end of the pandemic allowed her to appreciate community and realize its pleasures. Thus, the theme of her upcoming album, “The Age of Pleasure.” In the visuals for the album’s first single, “Lipstick Lover,” Monae emerges from a swimming pool in a see-through wet T-shirt. Then, she dives into the pool topless through a tunnel of legs. The preview accumulated over 22 million views on Twitter.
“[I]t’s beautiful that I have a title called ‘The Age of Pleasure’ because it actually re-centers me. It’s not about an album anymore. I’ve changed my whole f— lifestyle,” she told Rolling Stone.
There’s No In Between for Janelle Monae
Unfortunately, the “Yoga” singer has faced criticism on social media for this assumed new direction. Despite many people’s shock at the singer’s exhibitionism, the shift is actually not new for her. She has previously posted photos on Instagram wearing nothing but a skirt and pasties or posing topless in Ibiza.
“Even when I was really, really wearing only suits…I was either in a suit, or you would find me at my own parties naked. It was no in-between,” she said in the Rolling Stone Interview.
Monae has also displayed her sexual freedom for years in her music. She came out in Rolling Out as pansexual in 2018 and as non-binary last year.
“Some people who have their own agendas and are respectability politicians may have been misled into believing that I was covering up to be an example of how to be proper,” she told the Breakfast Club in 2018. “I didn’t like that. I never took that as a compliment.”
Janelle Monae’s album “The Age of Pleasure” is set to release on June 9.