EMOTION PICTURE : a narrative film and accompanying musical album Dirty Computer is the fourth studio album and first “emotion picture” by Janelle Monáe. This is her first full musical project since 2013’s The Electric Lady. In an interview with Ebro, Janelle explained the meaning of her album’s title “Dirty Computer”: We come from dirt and when we transition out we go back to dirt. […] We’re CPUs, our brains are uploading, downloading, transmitting, passing back and forth information. And with all computers you got your bugs, you got your viruses. But are those negatives, positives, features? Or not? I think it’s a conversation I want to have with us as a society, as human beings, about what it means to tell somebody that their existence, either they’re queer, minorities, women, poor, makes you have bugs and viruses. […] it’s about embracing those things even if it makes others uncomfortable. On February 22nd, she dropped two singles, “Django Jane” and “Make Me Feel.” They were then followed up with “PYNK” and “I Like That” in April. The album is set to feature Pharrell Williams, Brian Wilson, and more. After releasing them and officially announcing the albums release, she spoke on what its focus would be in an interview: We spent a lot of time making something very detailed that didn’t need a lot of explaining, that was just about the emotion…I hope that comes across. That people feel more free, no matter where they are in their lives, that they feel celebrated. Because I’m about women’s empowerment. I’m about agency. I’m about being in control of your narrative and your body. That was personal for me to even talk about: to let people know you don’t own or control me and you will not use my image to defame or denounce other women. It was announced with a trailer of a “narrative film” that will be “accompanying [the] musical album” on February 16, 2018. The trailer is also screened in sessions of Ryan Coogler’s film Black Panther. The Dirty Computer emotion picture was shown exclusively on BET, MTV and was released on YouTube on April 27, 2018.