The new face of cool

Janelle Monáe is an Andy Warhol-quoting, pop music superchick

Retro kids rocking high- top fades, music geek hipsters wearing coke-bottle glasses and urban music industry glitterati in skinny jeans and Manolo Blahniks collectively wait in anticipation at the Highline Ballroom, swaying to DJ Cassidy’s hip-hop set. Cassie twirls her hair. Talib Kweli chats with a girlfriend. Finally, Sean “Diddy” Combs emerges from backstage to introduce the woman he calls “the most important signing of my career.” She could also be known as the girl who could make Bad Boy Entertainment relevant again.

“He sent me a message on MySpace, and I never called him back because I didn’t believe it was him,” recalls Monáe, who was discovered by Big Boi of Outkast during an open mic performance at Combs’ restaurant, Justin’s, in Atlanta. “Big Boi was like, ‘He’s been calling me all morning.’ [Diddy] just wanted to talk to us and figure out how to help out and not come in and bother the process we have already,” she says. Before the Diddy phone tag, the 23-year-old, Kansas City, Mo., native contributed to Outkast’s “Idlewild” soundtrack and released her own music independently with her record label, The Wondaland Arts Society.

“There are so many people in the Bad Boy audience who need to see a project like this,” she says.

Call her the anti-Danity Kane, with her operatic voice (she studied at Manhattan’s American Musical and Dramatics Academy), androgynous style (think Grace Jones meets Michael Jackson), intellectually intense cultural references (German expressionist film, anyone?) and manic electro-funk meets rockabilly leanings.

With such pedigree, what does she think about Danity Kane?

“I respect what they’ve done, they’re really sweet girls,” she says diplomatically about the MTV reality group turned chart-topping celebrity blogger punchline.

Instead, Monáe is a part of a new, directional group of girl artists, including Santogold and Kid Sister, who have the potential to influence the path of pop music. How many hip-hop acts began experimenting with rock after André 3000 (who says fellow Atlanta resident Monáe “has one of the most enchanting voices of our generation”) went all Jimi Hendrix on “The Love Below”? How refreshing would it be to see a new crop of chicks let go of the honey-colored Beyoncé-esque weaves and mine life experiences other than the club and relationships gone wrong for lyrics?

“I don’t want to label myself and say my music is for hipsters or the mainstream. Andy Warhol said let everyone else do that. I just want to redefine certain things,” Monáe adds.

She’s starting with the business side of things. Her trippy debut release, “Metropolis: Suite 1,” which drops Aug. 12, will be the first in a series of short, concept albums centered around a girl android who lives in a futuristic city called Metropolis. She took inspiration from iTunes:

“Sometimes you listen to an album and pick your two or three songs and only listen to those. With each suite, I’m giving you those four or five songs that I think are essentials from the work.”