The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Janelle Monáe - Living Her Best Life

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

“I am in the most ‘I don’t have to prove anything’ space that I’ve ever been in in my life.” Grammy-nominated musician, actor, and author Janelle Monáe discusses healing during the pandemic, celebrating life, coming up with “The Memory Librarian” while on mushrooms, and her love of science fiction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Janelle Monet. Janelle Monet. Hello. Welcome. A good to see you. Good. Good.

Good. How to you. How old. Welcome back to the Daily Show. Wow. That's what I say every time I see you. Welcome back to the Daily Show. That's what I say every time I see you. This is huge. Hi, Treasurer.

This is fun. I'm so happy to be back. I'm so happy to see you here. Because like when I talk to you over Zoom, I don't get like, this. For those who don't know, Janelle Monet always looks like this. Like just always, you are easily one of the most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most most the most the most the most the most the most, no, you are easily one of the most glamorous, stylish people I have ever come across in my life. Like you looked like how we're just supposed to dress as a thing.

You are so kind. I totally paid him to say this thing. You know, we're in the pandemic, he was trying to make some extra money. My side hustle was complimenting Janelle Monet. Welcome back to the show. How is life? How's everything treating it? Because you are one of the few people I know who just seems to excel in everything you do. Music, you excel.

And it's your own type of music. It's your own vibe. It's different. It's not easy. You know, and then movies. the new knives out. It's just like your life is a dream and now a book that's already got starred reviews. Well tell it to my therapist because clearly clearly there's a lot of things that I have to fix according to them. I'm amazing. Yeah. I'm amazing man. I'm gonna say that. And I'll say this. I used to kind of just say that. You know. How are you doing? I'm doing. I'm the the to the to the to the to the to. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm the the the the the to say, I'm the to say, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm to say, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going to say, I'm to say, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm to say. I'm to say, I'm to say, I'm to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm to say the the the the the the the the the the th. I'm th. I'm thi, I'm tha, I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thea. I'm thea. I'm thea. I'm toea, I'm toe. I'm to say, I'm the. I'm a this, I used to kind of just say that, you know, because is it, how are you doing? I'm doing, I'm doing great, how you doing? But I am like in the most, I don't have to prove anything space.

Ooh. That I've ever been in in my life. Yeah, and it took me a while to get there because, you know, as public people we try to inspire people with our words, but I don't feel like I was really living what I was saying. Oh I like that. I wasn't really believing in it myself. I was saying it, it was helping other people, but I had to do some deep healing during the pandemic. I was dealing with a lot of rejection and abandonment issues just from like my childhood. Things that I had just kind of kept in me and they they were just coming to the surface and I th th th th th th th th th th th the th. the the the th. the th. th. the th. the th. th. the, th. th. th. the, the, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. the, the, the, the, the an, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, the, thin, the. the. the, the, the, things that I had just kind of kept in me and they were just coming to the surface and I think one of the things that the pandemic has done is forced us all to go in, stay in. Yeah and so I'm at I'm at this place where like I'm ready to celebrate. If we're not talking about vacations I don't want to

talk if we're not planning a vacation I don't out it I, it's just like, what are we doing? I don't know that. We are supposed to be living our best lives. I'm young, I'm creative. Hey, hey. Ta-Wen, right? No, seriously, like, we're supposed to be living our earth's experience in the best possible way.

And I think when I first started my career I was really serious like I have to prove a point yes I have to prove that just because I look like this I can do this type of music right right I can say these things I can talk about science fiction I had a lot to prove but now man I'm floating we feel it's I love that that's beautiful you know what it's interesting because you start to feel that with artists when they hit that groove, you know, because I think everyone goes through a phase of you have to prove. You know, you know, I'm sure you understand. Oh, yeah,

definitely. Because initially you're going, will I keep the job? Do I belong here? This imposter syndrome? Over time you develop a trust, yourself, the audience, your audience, the audience, their, their, their, their, their, th. I, th. I, th. I, th. Yeah, th. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I's, I's, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I thi, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, because, I th. th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I, I. I. I. I. I, I. I. I. I, I. I, I. I. I, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the audience, your experiences. The book feels like the perfect representation of that for me because I knew that you liked science fiction. You know, I mean like, you know, your albums for instance, your music videos, you've never been afraid to say, like, I like science fiction, but now you wrote a book of short stories. And I was like, oh no, Janelle Monet loves science. Yes. I do. Because you co-wrote with some amazing authors. Let's start with that. How did you even begin this process of going, you know what? I want to write like a future book.

So this short story collection is from the soil of Dirty Computer. My album that came out in 2018 and I released a film with that and I knew I had more to say. Set down in the pandemic 2020. And I finally said that there's more. And you know I was on mushrooms and I just came up with all of these thought experiments, you know, where I was like, what if there was this black woman, she was a memory keeper of this city. She knew all of the people's memories before they were cleaned, before their identities were wiped clean and she wants to fall in love. What does that

mean when you want to fall in love but you know everybody's secrets? That's the first story. What does that mean? So that's the first one? That's just the first story. Imagine that first you see you already already, you you you you you you you you you you the you you the you you the you're the the you're the the the the th. You're already, you're already, you're already, you're the to the to to the to to the to to to to the the the the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the people. the people. the people. the people. the people. the people's they. the people. the the people. the the people. the the the the the the the the's the first story. What does that mean? So that's the first one. It's called the memory library. That's just the first story. Imagine that first. You see, you're already like, ooh, first story. Yeah. And then, and then, what if you lived in New York? And there was a room that you could go into, you didn't even know existed, but when you went into into into into into into this into this this this this this this this this this this this this room into this room into this room into this of speaks to time poverty, in a sense. You know, black and brown folks, we've been spending our life fighting, right?

To be included all these things. What if you had an opportunity to steal time, to get time back? Would you rest? Would you show the community this place? How would you, if you could get time back? How would you use it? I love how you've used the stories in the book to delve into topics that sometimes are too dense or too,

like, they're fraught with politics and they don't let us just think about them. For instance, the first story you talked about, it's in the future. There's this woman, she's got all these memories, how does she trust people, how does she know people? And all I found myself thinking, I was like, man, I feel like that's what social media is slowly slipping us into is people have now lived their entire life online. Now we're in a generation where people have gone from my baby steps all the way through, I have existed online.

So now do I have any anonymity? Can I write my own story without other people writing it from my posts. Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, social media is a virtual reality. It's a whole another world. Like, people create and we curate the type of people that we are. I think being human, in my opinion, is performative. I'm performing a version of what I think Janelle Monet should be. I told you, I'm from the future. Yeah, no. It gets deep. It gets deep. It's all feedback.

We're getting feedback from how we should be, how what we've seen we didn't like. And it's like, oh, now I'm this person because of that information. But that's a whole other story. I think you're right. I think that there be their own memory librarian. Like, I started to look at my life and I started to think about, man, I was, I wasn't in the moment in so many ways.

I was so in the future here for like the majority of my career. I was in the future. And so, how can I create memories now? Like, our memories are the things that determine the quality of our life. Without them, who are we? You know, when you take away somebody's identity and who they are it's just like that that was their life's experience, you know? That's deep. Wow. Yeah. And I want to shout out, Elia Don Johnson. I wrote the memory librarian with her and I wrote the this entire collection. Each short story I partnered with a who th th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th the are the are the the are theat theat the are the are the are the are the are the are the are the are the are the are the are the are th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th. the the the the the the the. who are theat. Who are theateat. Who are toeateat. Who are toeat. Who are theateateat. Who are theateate. And I wrote this entire collection. Each short story I partnered with a writer. How did you choose them? I'd love to know.

Well, friends who were writers, because I knew like, okay, there's a story called Nevermind. And there is an incredible writer by the name of Danny Lore and non-binary, and they are just really, really good when it comes to action. Like they're doing some stuff with this James Bond graphic novel and I was like, okay, Danny would be great for that. And then Eve Ewing, I did time box with. Sheree Renee Thomas, I did time box altered with Johanka Delgado. I did save changes. Imagine if you could go back and there was this device and you wanted to just like, I don't want to give too much away, but these stories are just incredible and then

you know I said a liar down John so I just want to make sure I shout them out Because this was a super innovative way of releasing a book. It really is you know what I enjoyed about it is when you go from story to story. What you've done is there is the common thread of Janelle Monet. I can feel the future you in all these stories and the way you think, but then it's infused with like different elements from all of the different writers. You know, if you know Eve's writing and her style, you can feel it in some of the dialogue and some of the moments. If you know like features on it. Yeah, it's like a compilation album. It really is. It is like a mix tape. It's phenomenal. So they feel so different from story to story and yet they have a common thread. I can see why it's getting rave reviews. I can see like now the question is, are you going to turn this into, I know it started with the album that's a movie, I'm a, I....... I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the, the, they. they. It's they. It's they. It's like, they. It's like, they. It's like, they's like, they's like, they're like, like, they're like, they're like, they're like, they're they're they. It's like, it's like, it's like and then now there's a book but now this book seems like it's begging to be turned into a TV show you think so do you think it could be a

TV show every time I was reading this I was like okay guys everybody watching listen we need to make it happen let's make it happen we're gonna make it happen thank you so much you I adore you thank you give them a round of a giv-a'a'am Thank you. Janelle Rolet, everybody. The Memory Librarian will be available April 19th. Watch the Daily Show, weeknights at 11, 10th Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.