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‘You’re a Naughty, Naughty Girl’: Grace Jones & Janelle Monae Celebrate Pride Month With Campy, Brilliant BRIC Benefit Show

Grace Jones and Janelle Monae celebrate Pride at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park.

“Grace Jones is the most original, innovative artist of our time,” Monáe said toward the end of the night, saluting the Jamaica-born musician who went from singing disco in Studio 54 to pioneering a spiky, brash blend of reggae and art rock in the ‘80s. In addition to playing a new, unreleased funk song called “The Key” which found her in her characteristic sing-speak mode augmented by a vocoder or talk box effect, she delivered the lion’s share of her catalog favorites, including her full-throated, hard-hitting “Love Is the Drug.” In a shimmering bowler hat under a spotlight, Jones whipped the crowd into a sing-along fervor at the end of the Roxy Music cover, declaring, “It’s wake up the neighbors!” and urging the all-smiles audience to pump up the decibels and “wake ‘em up!” with every fresh round of whoa-ohs. Who’s ever heard of a curfew?” Jones snarled as she put on a massive, seashell-esque red headpiece and began slinking around to the flirty funk guitar of “Pull Up to the Bumper” (a gay club favorite for reasons that become clear when you pay attention to the lyrics).

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