What a long two years it’s been since Janelle Monáe closed her fourth album, Dirty Computer, with the hopeful political anthem “Americans.” She’s continuing in the same vein on new song “Turntables,” released today ahead of All In: The Fight for Democracy, a documentary about voter suppression that hits theaters on September 9 and Amazon Prime on September 18. Like the documentary, Monáe’s soulful hip-hop track is a call to take advantage of your right to vote and head to the polls. Monáe sings about the tables turning in the country’s current moment: “We kickin’ out the old regime,” she raps. “Liberation, elevation, education.” Or, as she puts it elsewhere on the song, “You fuck up the kitchen, then you should do the dishes.” It’s Monáe’s first song since 2019’s “That’s Enough,” for the Disney+ live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp.
