The album is crucially accompanied by an “emotion picture” also called Dirty Computer that depicts a surveillance state where queer people and people of color are hunted down for noncompliance. This is third album from the model, actress, singer and producer Janelle Monae following her last album in 2013 electric lady that had a pop concept which was kinda revisited in Dirty Computer with an ultra- futuristic component.
In a way it is a good album but less of a build up from her previous albums. The sound is fresh , forward thinking, it gets me there and a focused attempt at an epic afro-centric, melanin-love theme which really suited well with the timing socially. They’re stopped while driving by the police. They’re beaten and arrested at their own parties. The music videos for the songs act as an allusive, visually stunning novel-in-stories, intentionally paralleling our own reality in judgment. Throughout the visual album we got to see more of her Wonderland Records label members who really might have been an influence to most of the sound.
Comparing with her other two albums “Dirty Computer” is quite expressive about sex. The vagina pants in the song “Pynk” dancing in the desert and well the pants look sexy in their way. This album is in no way reserved, hinting at everything you thought about her and showing off what she has learnt through the years by ranking number one on Top R&B Albums Chart.
What came after
Dirty Computer went on to earn Monáe her first Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, at the 2019 ceremony. She followed it five years later with The Age of Pleasure (2023), a shorter, sunnier record built around Afrobeat and dancehall influences, led by the single "Lipstick Lover." She's since been leaning into acting again too, set to star as real-life con artist Tanya Smith and produce a film adaptation of Smith's memoir, Never Saw Me Coming, through her own Wondaland Pictures.
