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AHHA: So, talking about that walking dead I really like the line in your song “Sincerely Jane” when you’re singing, “Are we really living or just walking dead?” When you sing it what do you imagine?

Janelle Monae: Exactly what it says, you know there is a difference a huge difference between one who is here alive but are they living? You’re either living or you’re walking dead, and for me I grew up around a lot of people who are walking dead. My family some of my friends, coming from a small town like Kansas sometimes, people get very hopeless. They feel like they’re stuck and the people around them keep themselves stuck too. People make up all these rules that you have to abide by and when you’re in a small town, it’s hard to really be free without people whispering.

For me that was true, and it hurts me every time I have a conversation with a family member. I’ll call home and they’re lost or they’re on drugs or just trying to find themselves and I purposefully call back so I could stay connected. I know that I have to as an artist, really, really make them proud and hopefully inspire them and let them know just because we come from an environment, we don’t have to be of that environment.