A week ago, Grimes and Janelle Monáe shared the video for “Venus Fly,” off Grimes’ 2015 album Art Angels. However, you may have missed it if you’re not a TIDAL subscriber, as it was released exclusively through the streaming service. Now it’s also on YouTube, and thus it’s also below in this very post for your viewing delight.
The video — which features Monáe wielding a fiery sword in a flamboyant angel-warrior outfit in keeping with the costumery of the other videos from Art Angels, and Grimes bathing in a tub of molasses and weaponizing fairy tale femininity (you’ll quickly see the nod to Beauty and the Beast) — was directed and edited by Grimes.
Grimes praised Monáe in an Instagram post upon the release of the video, writing, “Sometimes it feels futile to be making art in this cruel and extreme political climate, but some of the brightest moments of the last few months for me and for a lot of you, i suspect, have come from seeing @janellemonae ‘s amazing and positive vision of the future, especially when we are being introduced to so many possible dystopian futures;” she signed off her message with “#femthefuture.”
Watch the video in full: