Culture Cow: A new offering from Kansas artist Janelle Monae is stellar
Commentary by Devin McCue, Sumner Newscow — Let’s start this weekend off with a new offering from Kansas artist, Janelle Monae. She has been around for over a decade, but her new album, Dirty Computer, is her first in five years and it is stellar.
She’s a singer/songwriter/rapper and she does all three with expert care and delivery. It’s hard to pin her down as any one type of artist because she does everything with the utmost attention to detail and talent. In her newest album, Janelle returns to her strong feminist ideals and lays the hammer down on patriarchy with strong female-forward subject matter backed by her strong voice. In fact, there isn’t a male voice to be found on the entire album.
Monae, who was born in Kansas City, Kans., has always been fierce in her assertion of her beliefs and never shies away from throwing her opinions in the face of her listener. This time around, however, she created a visual component to the story she weaves throughout the work. It’s on YouTube under the same name and stars Monae and Thor Ragnarock star, Tessa Thompson, in a dystopian future where rebellious souls are titled as “Dirty Computers” and forced to forget the memories that make them unique and free.
The extended visual album plays most of the songs in the album and finds a brilliant way of linking together the vastly different music videos into a seamless and gripping narrative. Dirty Computer is a refreshing piece of R&B from Kansas and I’m happy to cover someone from my own state for a change. Check out Dirty Computer today, my favorite tracks include, but are not limited to: Screwed, Django Jane (favorite), Pynk, Make Me Feel, I Like That, and Americans.
The title of “Renaissance Man” gets thrown around a lot these days because it refers to anyone who seems to excel at everything, while at the same time making it look easy. There may not be any man today that more embodies that definition than Donald Glover or his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino.
This week, the writer/comedian/actor/singer/rapper dropped the most viral music video to hit the internet since Drake’s Hotline Bling, titled This is America. The video quickly shattered weekly streaming records and spawned a wave of response and analysis videos from everyone between bloggers and the Washington Post (which is a very good one that you should check out here).
The song and video match up precisely so that it promotes the central theme of the song, which is the perfect intention of a music video at its core. The purpose of the song is make a comment about our country’s deep attachment to and history with guns and the effect it has on race issues. The video follows a shirtless Gambino, as he dances and undulates with other African Americans between periods of intense violence in the face of terrible violence and riots that call to mind the civil rights protests of the previous generation.
While the video and song itself is rather simple and easy to comprehend, the message is incredibly layered and takes a few viewings to really soak in the intricacies Glover strategically placed in the background. If you’re in need of further analysis, however, just google “This is America reaction” and you’ll have enough material to last you until his next album comes out. A warning: It is very violent. Parental discretion is advised.
Back in the wonderful world of stand-up comedy, Netflix has a series of new artists to grab your attention. The first belongs to a hilarious Indian man from Queens, New York by the name of Hari Kondabolu. While his name is hard to understand, his particular brand of comedy is not. Hari is an incredibly intelligent individual who delights the crowd with recollections of being raised by his mother and how Indian people are obsessed with cantaloupe. Hari is like if Aziz Ansari had a little more edge and a little fewer “Me Too” accusations.
The second cinematic series of standups on the streaming steward, is the second season of the Standups (alliteration, nailed it). The Standups is a one-night performance put on by Netflix that feature 6 up and coming comedians. The comedians have a wide range of styles and subject matter and subject the viewer to a very different sort of comedy with each passing performer.
It’s well worth taking your time, but if you binge the entire season in one sitting (like your humble CultureCow) you get to not only see the differing comedy styles, but the crowd’s reaction to the switch. The two best were Gina Yashere and Aparna Nancherla.
Finally, the last comedian you should check out on Netflix this week is a hilarious woman speaking honestly and seriously for a change: Tina Fey’s interview on David Letterman’s My Next Guess Guest Needs No Introduction. Fey is one of my favorite comedians and writers of all time and her new interview with Letterman shares her views on women in the writers’ room to her family life to so much more. If you’re a fan of 30 Rock, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Mean Girls, Saturday Night Live, or comedy in general, this discussion is a must-watch and gives you a backstage pass to the mind of one of the great comedy-writers of our time.
Meme of the week
I unfortunately can’t look at every meme that dominates the internet every week, so if you see a meme and think it should be the meme of the week please send it to: SumnerCultureCow@gmail.com
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