Five years may have separated fans of Janelle Monae from a studio album, but that wait came to an end on April 27th thanks to ‘Dirty Computer.’ Preceded by the critically acclaimed cuts ‘I Like That,’ ‘Make Me Feel,’ ‘Django Jane,’ ‘Pynk,’ and a short film, ‘Computer’ comes as the eclectic singer’s first project to be completely devoid of the “Cindy Mayweather” narrative.
Applauded for its brazen subject matter – namely songs that circulate around sexual freedom and feminism – promotion of the effort also saw Monae make headlines for officially “coming out of the closet” as pansexual (click here to read more). Yet, while the artist found her name listed atop a number of talking points on social media and news media, ‘Computer’s content – given all its critical fanfare – has not exactly seen that recognition mirrored commercially. Among the set’s singles, ‘Feel’ is the only one to crack the Hot 100 and, as of time reported, has peaked at #99.
Curious to know if the nonperformance of its leading trio of tunes had any bearing on the LP’s anticipated first week commercial showing? Look inside to see:
Janelle Monae (‘Dirty Computer’)
Predicted Sales (SPS): 37,000-42,000
Predicted pure sales: 30,000-35,000
With figures in line with most of today’s top Urban offerings, if they ring true the numbers above will render Monae’s second-best first week sales (2013’s ‘Electric Lady’ shifted 47,000 units its inaugural week).
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Sorry but I disagree with the comment “With figures in line with most of today’s top Urban offerings”. This is a FLOP, but let’s NOT pretend like Beyonce, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Drake, and Future don’t sell records!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bad state of “urban offerings” in today’s market is directly derived from the lack of label investment!!!!!! Ever since record labels stopped investing in songwriters and musicicans, the music itself has become less marketable and this streaming market means pennies on the dollar. This album had 4 or 5 videos, a movie, live promotion, etc and only debuted with 40K sales despite the US population having 326,766,748 people means a FLOP.
Bey and Rih are Pop hun. The other artist are hip hop artist. Janelle is Urban…
No hip hop is certainly urban. Bey and Rih’s music is both pop and urban. I forgot about Kendrick Lamar but include him on the list too. Drake music is both hip hop and rnb.
solange went #1 off these numbers.. not bad for alternative r n b artist these days
Solange did not get all that promo though either. These numbers are bad considering the b!!tch made a whole movie for the whole album and ain’t poppin off with even a fraction of Lemonade’s numbers.
The delusion, how could she possibly do Beyoncé numbers when she’s – sad, but true – not even a household name with most.
Regardless, the album is a masterpiece, her best to date! Also the highest rated album of 2018 so far on Metacritic, so overall this is a success for her. People will know her name now.
lmao maybe she should have bought her records and padded her numbers like roach did with koolaid lmaoooooooooooooo
Well it doesn’t matter because the album is the most acclaimed album of 2018 and one of the most acclaimed of all time. Im sure Janelle isn’t pressed off sales.
@Dev, isn’t there already a Dev next these waters?
Janelle is more for black people not whites so no she won’t be making huge numbers come on people
Omg she’s going to sell more than Tanisha
ALOT more than Tinashe
This is a great record PERIOD. This should be at the top of the charts
The album is crap…. no surprise she flopped!
Troll asss.
These numbers are good. 30k pure for a female alt. urban act ain’t bad. Consistent with War & Leisure from Miguel and hit wise she ain’t no Miguel.
lmao miguel who?
She’s talented…not very attractive. So knowing today’s market theres no way she could sell many records.
gtfo Janelle is absolutely stunning and her melanin makes the trolls like you throw the most meanliness shade..
Not attractive GTFOH
Thats what your mommas baby daddy said just before yo stank a55 was born
Hotter than rhianna
She will be fine her projects usually do good for her standard on a long term basis plus she’s on her own label so these are good numbers
I’m not surprised. As much as I adore Janelle Monae as an artist, this is her worst album to date. I should’ve known she’d never be able to top the Arch Android or metropolis. I don’t care what score she has on metacritic. Dirty computer sounds like an obvious attempt to crossover,but it lacks that special something from her previous releases. I enjoy the movie but that’s it and a select few tracks from the album.
Metropolis The Chase Suite, and ArchAndriod were her best work to date. These were brilliant albums…….lush full instrumentation, innovative, daring, highly imaginative, and super inspiring!!!
It seems like the more “famous” she has gotten, the more the music has fallen off and that is such shame.
I was never a big fan but this album is super dope. I listened to it by chance and can’t stop. I am now a fan.
Well done Janelle ???? Considering she is ALT and not strait Pop or R&B this is good. I mean – Tinashe did 5k. Haterz will always find something to flap dey lips about ??
And for folk saying it sounds like she crossed over and failed – she hasn’t lost an ounce of the message she set out to convey. For the chicken heads amoung you ? you won’t even understand the messages, so stay in your lane.
The girl is trying to speak out and do that in a world that’s ‘Screwed’ more than usual of late – she’s not about sales – she wants people to listen to her art and message.
The album is acclaimed regardless of weather it sold 30k or 300k – people are hearing her message – haterz can stay mad. She remains unbothered and will tour the hell out of this album and make good ?
thanks for the truth SIS
You wrote all of that and still come off as stupid.
The messages might still be there but the music is lacking. Dirty Computer musically does sound like an attempt to crossover! It’s much more pop than her previous releases.
You can have a great message and the music can still not be that great.
What person even still uses the term “chickenhead”?
Take your ghetto fake deep behind on somewhere.
Only idiots think they are smarter than someone based off of their taste in music. Again the album as a whole sucks and you will deal.
She doesn’t have any radio hits. She would sell more if she did. So this is pretty decent for her…
I agree. I never think it’s a good idea to release an album w/o a hit to precede it — unless you’re certain big name artists — but your point is correct.
In her case it is not bad then because sales have gone down A LOT in five years since her previous release. And let´s face it, despite the great body of work, music like hers is not promoted or played on radio. never. it´s a pity. The album and whole message and visuals are amazing. Real creative artist.
Queen beyonce is better.
I mean she still sounds the same from high school choral music ?…I didn’t like her tones then but I support hometown talent & purchased a few singles from her!!