{"id":157,"date":"2019-12-23T23:08:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T23:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/?p=157"},"modified":"2020-04-25T21:07:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T21:07:26","slug":"tightrope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/tightrope\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTightrope\u201d \u2013 Janelle Mon\u00e1e"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"HIGH QUALITY Janelle Mon\u00e1e - Tightrope (on David Letterman) HD 1080p 720p\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rzZnao2fbRQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Every so often a star shows up who\u2019s so original and fully-formed that her ascent to cultural icon status feels inevitable. Janelle Mon\u00e1e is the 2010s\u2019 prime example.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raised in Kansas City, Mon\u00e1e had early showbiz ambitions that couldn\u2019t be tempered by her conservative Baptist upbringing. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/janelle-monae-frees-herself-629204\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2018 Rolling Stone article<\/a>, her family tells stories about Mon\u00e1e as a child that are almost too perfect \u2013 how she was escorted out of church for singing \u201cBeat It\u201d during services, how she won a talent show three years in a row doing Lauryn Hill every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OutKast found Mon\u00e1e early on, and Big Boi became her biggest evangelist, convincing Puff Daddy to sign her based on her MySpace page. The influence went both ways \u2013 her debut EP, 2007\u2019s conceptually ambitious <em>Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)<\/em>, has a lot in common with post-<em>Speakerboxxx<\/em> Big Boi productions. Even so, Mon\u00e1e\u2019s futurist electro-funk style was already well-defined, and her star quality was undeniable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2010, <em>The ArchAndroid<\/em> LP dropped, and that was that. Janelle made her network TV debut on Letterman, and it\u2019s still jaw-dropping to watch now. There are traces of OutKast in the band\u2019s hyper energy, but \u201cTightrope\u201d is classic funk. Mon\u00e1e proves herself worthy of pulling James Brown moves in front of an audience that has no idea who she is. At the end of the performance Letterman asks Puff Daddy to come onstage, who then bows to our new queen. What else could he do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the decade, Mon\u00e1e\u2019s trajectory has only accelerated. She\u2019s won awards from sources as diverse as MTV, the NAACP and GLAAD; she runs her own Wondaland Arts Society label; she penned a protest anthem that David Byrne sings on Broadway every night; she starred in two Oscar-nominated movies in the same year, including the Best Picture winner; she\u2019s a CoverGirl model. There\u2019s only enough room for so many stars in the world, but when you get a Janelle Mon\u00e1e, you roll out the red carpet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every so often a star shows up who\u2019s so original and fully-formed that her ascent to cultural icon status feels inevitable. Janelle Mon\u00e1e is the 2010s\u2019 prime example.\u00a0 Raised in Kansas City, Mon\u00e1e had early showbiz ambitions that couldn\u2019t be tempered by her conservative Baptist upbringing. In a 2018 Rolling Stone article, her family tells&hellip; <\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/tightrope\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-201x-favorites","tag-janelle-monae"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tightrope - Janelle Mon\u00e1e | Rich Bradley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every so often a star shows up who\u2019s so original and fully-formed that her ascent to cultural icon status feels inevitable.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/201x-favorites\/tightrope\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tightrope - 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