As I think you all know by now, I'm a lover of soul music. And who's the godfather of soul? Why James Brown of course. So you can imagine my delight when I came across Janelle Monae. An indie pop and soul singer, signed by Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2007, she has a great voice and even better dance moves. But what I love about her the most is her blatant reference back to the good old James Brown days. As you can see in the above Letterman performance, she works the moves (though no one is as smooth as the man) and even has cape placed on her shoulders before she drops the the ground on her knees. As you've seen here before, this is all James Brown. I've reposted that video here for you enjoyment. (be sure to watch the end of both videos).
Of course this means she is nothing new, but how refreshing to see this young artist refuse to be placed into the young black woman musical artist categories (as she says in a few interviews). And to harken back to James Brown, well thats way cooler than the Madonna reference that is getting a bit tired with Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera. No wonder P.Diddy said this was the most important signings of his career.
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