Janelle Monae Is the New Hottest

Singer and actress Janelle Monae has just released a promo for her next single that is burning up the socials and demands further study and follow-up. Here is the new clip, where she’s advertising her new single “Lipstick Lover” (in a wet t-shirt that says pleasure) and an earlier one, in a shirt touting the single “Float.”

So with these videos (which invoke the famous Jamaica wet t-shirt, we’ll have to write about that sometime) Janelle Monae jumps to the front of the line of hot female celebrities you not only want to see naked, but that you are pretty much already seeing naked. This is Ratajkowski-esque, or Sweeney-esque. Those videos are just fire.

Turns out this is an escalating campaign of fire for Janelle Monae. She went topless at her own birthday party. She posed in a see-through dress for Ebony. And just a few days before the release of “Lipstick Lover,” she was the hottest thing at the Met Gala. That’s Florence Pugh (of Florence and the Machine) ogling her in the third clip:

In a tweet that went viral, a fan described this awakening as “janelle monae finally showing off how fine she is instead of dressing like the monopoly man.” Yup. It was a look — a signature, maybe iconic look — but it wasn’t sexy.