names throughout her history: The Alpha Platinum 9000, Android Number 57821, the
ArchAndroid, and the Electric Lady. These nominal designations assist listeners in
identifying what part of the folklore’s timeline is being referenced. For instance in
“March of the Wolfmasters,” (the intro to Metropolis), and the song “57821,” on The
ArchAndroid, Mayweather is identified by her classification via the Droid Control. In
“March,” the announcer broadcasts, “Android Number 57821, otherwise known as Cindi
Mayweather, has fallen desperately in love with a human named Anthony Greendown.”
In “57821” on The ArchAndroid, Monáe sings “Cold in the cell, lost and shivering…On the fifth floor, past the blue door, sat a chained 57821.” The label is akin to a “slave name” for Cindi Mayweather. It “reflects her subordinate state, and renders her as a chattel detached from her genealogical identity.”732
Monáe – through Mayweather – sides with the androids, as demonstrated by her
use of the pronoun ‘we’ when identifying androids’ characteristics. In interviews, she
affiliates herself with androids when she claims that she “only dates androids” and that
she “attends an Android community church in Metropolis.”733 Monáe embraces the two-
sided complex identity of an entity that possesses subjectivity, and yet is a creation of
humans. She sings her complicated condition in the song “Violet Stars, Happy Hunting.”
Monáe takes on the persona of Mayweather, who has the wherewithal to describe herself
as “a cyber girl without a face a heart or a mind.” In the next stanza, she engages in a
But the Time Council was unable to broker the deal with President Obama needed to legally extradite the suspect back to 2719 or terminate the suspect in her local time frame.” 732 Edward Onaci. “Revolutionary Identities: New Afrikans and Name Choices in the Black Power Movement.” Souls 17, no. 1 (2015): 70-71. 733 Christian Hoard, “Artist of the Week: Janelle Monáe.” Rolling Stone. June 30, 2010. Accessed January 9, 2015. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/artist-of-the-week-janelle-monae-20100630.
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