My favorite Solange moment of this year was her joining her sister Beyoncé on stage at Coachella Beychella and dropping it so low so many times, my knees got tired.
It wasn’t just the move itself; it was the attitude that poured out of it. That subtle “I see you looking, but I still don’t give a fuck about you” that goes unsaid but is always there.
It’s not a negative thing. It is just indicative of the way Solange marches to the beat of her own drum. She is not here for your respectability politics or your gender roles or “black women should this or that.” She’s claimed her stake, and she’s holding to it, all the while doling out her genius to us a little bit at a time.
You gon’ get this fight in an elevator, but you gon’ get this good ass music too. And you will deal accordingly.
And so it is on the heels of her highly-acclaimed 2016 album A Seat at the Table, with its Grammy-winning single “Cranes in the Sky,” that we come to the announcement that there is new Solange on the way, children. Hold tight.
In a profile for New York Times Style Magazine, Ayana Mathis writes that she interviewed “the Mononym” at a Los Angeles studio where she was putting the finishing touches on her upcoming album. There is apparently an “imminent” release, but Solange is closed-lipped about such details as the album’s name, the number of songs, any collaborations and whether or not there will be a tour to go along with it.
“The record will likely arrive into the world fully formed at some mysterious and unexpected moment, like a meteor cratering into the culture. But she will not be rushed,” Mathis wrote.
Are you excited?
I am.