Janelle Monáe is a Black queer woman, and this is her palace. “Django Jane,” and Dirty Computer, the epic, unapologetically feminist “emotion picture” from which it hails, came out in 2018, but it just as well could have dropped this week. Monáe’s outrage — at the entertainment industry making racist evaluations of her worth, at Black femmes being silenced and denied platforms — seeps into every syllable. “Runnin’ outta space in my damn bandwagon / Remember when they used to say I look too mannish?” she raps. “Black girl magic, y’all can’t stand it.” If the Black woman is “the most unprotected person in America,” then Monáe is steadying her shield. —Sam Manzella
