Of course you’ve seen Janelle Monae’s “Yoga” music video by now, right? The very first shot starts behind Janelle as we see her meditating while floating in the air. As the camera quickly moves in towards her, it pans around to her face. Here, her eyes are closed and she looks peaceful and at ease. So it came as no surprise to me that during an interview with Queen Latifah during The Queen Latifah Show, Latifah asked her, “I heard you don’t leave your house without your sense of confidence and peace. How do you do that?” Monae replied, “You have to. I live in Atlanta. I have little turn up sessions with my friends where I will put on rap music, and just go crazy. I do yoga.” Apparently, Monae practices yoga outside of the music video, as well.
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The beauty, simplicity, grace and confidence that become a part of you via yoga practice will make you stand out. You will feel your body become stronger and more flexible. Yoga also gives you clarity of mind, equipping you with the mental power to overcome hardships. Janelle couples that with a strong family bond. “I allow myself to be frustrated for three minutes. I’m like, ‘Okay, Janelle, you got three minutes. Get it together.’” Turning to the audience, she revealed, “I talk to myself. I do. But when I’m too stressed, I need to take a break. I just need to take a break. (As if to herself) Go call your grandmother. Go call home because your tribe connects you back. They remind you how blessed you are and of the struggle they went through so you could make it where you are today.” This statement was met with a cheering audience.
When Latifah asked Monae about how she came from a place like Kansas to make it to a mainstream level of stardom she replied:
I grew up in Kansis City, Kansas in one of the poorest counties – Wyandotte County – and my mother was a janitor. My father worked as a tartan. My stepfather, who treats me just like his own. Sometimes our lights would get cut off. I didn’t come from middle class. So I had to help out. I had to work hard, and once I got certain opportunities; I got the opportunity to meet Sean Combs and to work with outcast. I said, ‘I’m going to take this to the moon. Country girls like myself don’t get these opportunities. And what I wanted to do was make her proud and let her know, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to pay you back (her mother).” At the end of the day, your family brought you into this world. They knew you before everyone else did, and in Janelle’s case, before the whole world knew her. Change is a necessity in order to be a part of society, but you can see how easy it is to lose touch of who you were first. As my mother says, ‘Don’t forget where you came from.’
Next, Queen Latifah asked in what sort of ways was her creativity fed as she was growing up. Monae shared:
When I was growing up, I went to a public school. It was predominately African American. We had arts programs but not a lot. I was in theatre. I was in music, and I stayed in that. And I had great teachers ; they stayed on me. When they saw me slacking, they were like, ‘Robinson, get it together.’ And I did talent show cases. And my mother never said, ‘Hey, we want you to go be a doctor or a lawyer.’ She always believed in me. She always believed that my voice and the gift God had given me was going to take me somewhere. She just always would say that. They never told me to do anything else except be happy. Make sure the grades are good. You can be in any talent show you want to be in. And that was my ticket. I moved to New York fresh out of high school because of my acting and singing.
Speaking as someone with a dysfunctional family, I know that family has the power to hurt you the most. Even family can get cut off. I’ve seen it happen too often. But when you have some alone time – like your yoga and meditation time – sit and think: is it worth it to never be close again or even eliminate all contact with him/her/them? You may find that the disagreement is so small that thought of cutting someone off for it is utterly ridiculous. When people say that “Family is all you got” they mean that traditionally, your family provides shelter in this cold world.
Watch Janelle Monae’s interview with Queen Latifah below.
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