Janelle Monae’s Favorite Books
Built to Last by Jim Collins
“In the very beginning, I used Jim Collins’ book Built to Last to figure out my core values. And then I gave those core values to everyone I worked with: Atlantic Records, CoverGirl, etc., and as I embarked on new creative projects or business partnerships, I weighed my core values and the proposed opportunity and I decided accordingly. “
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil
“I love him. That was a huge inspiration to me and my writing process.”
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
“It brought forth the revolutionary in me. I think that Malcolm X represented a lot of authentic militarism during a time of integration and segregation in the 50s and 60s. So he just gave me a new perspective on how he felt about integration and human right — not just African American rights.”
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
“One of the last books that we read as a company was Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. We have some incredible people working with Wondaland Records, and we knew that if we were going to releasing five artists, including myself, we’d need to figure out a way to make sure we were on schedule. We wanted to find the quickest ways to get quality results we were all happy with. It solves problems on how we write music and how we run the company. It’s the way people use it in the tech industry, inspired by the tech world. It justifies the way we run Wondaland Records.”