as you know

I will be posting updates soon, but I'll just let this video speak for itself:

"So you think I'm alone?

But being alone's the only way to be

When you step outside

You spend life fighting for your sanity"

Seeing as though this song was originally supposed to open Janelle Monae's "The Archandroid" but was instead replaced by the fabulous "Dance or Die" which features one of MY personal favorites, Mr. Saul "Five Senses" Williams, this video really needs no dissection. I mean we can try to push our personal interpretations upon it, interrogate the meaning to death, or we could allow its simplistic beauty to affect us, draw out emotions, strike our curiosity, much like (and I'd hate to compare the two) D'Angelo's "Untitled" with the beautiful brown skin, bare, exposed, and placed against a strikingly plain black background. She's bare here. Her emotions, raw. What are you fighting for Janelle? Respect? Dignity? Fame? Recognition? Your art? Truth? Reality? What are you putting on the line? Why are you hiding in your artistic solitude? Your inner peace? And have you found it yet? Will you ever now that you have been thrust into this limelight, this world of money, critics, audiences, fame, fortune, and despair? I pray that you find it. I pray that you never lose who you really are, who you believe yourself to be. I pray that you don't let yourself be eaten up from the inside out, that you may always recognize your own reflection and be pleased with it. Your fees are going up, you are becoming more famous, more recognized, more people want their hands on you, a place in your artistic space. Fight against the compromise. Fight for you.

I' m trying to find my peace

I was made to believe there's something wrong with me

And it hurts my heart

Lord have mercy, ain't it plain to see?

This is a cold war

You better know what you're fighting for.

This is a cold war

Do you know what you're fighting for?

Janelle,

The world is beginning to love you.
Remember always to love yourself.

Love,

Luna