Looks Like Janelle Has A Reason To 'Smile'

Despite the fear that being signed to Bad Boy Records would somehow turn Janelle Monae into a hip hop-soul pop tart (à la Cassie), she is back with some new material from her forthcoming Suite I: The Chase EP. The acoustic giutar on "Smile" along with the simplistic beauty in Monae's voice is a welcome change from the futuristic sci-fi sounds on her past tracks. As an added bonus, the additional instrumentation on "Mr. President" is still simplistic and, dare I say, more pop-worthy than her previous work. While we should all wait and see what's to come from the Janelle/Bad Boy merger, these two tracks demonstrate that she has more range than even some of her stans may have known.