Janelle Monáe’s recent single “Make Me Feel” has drawn comparisons to Prince, and it turns out there’s a good reason for that. Monáe recently told BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, “Prince actually was working on the album with me before he passed on to another frequency, and helped me come up with sounds. And I really miss him, you know, it's hard for me to talk about him. But I do miss him, and his spirit will never leave me.” Prince and Monáe had a close working relationship before he died in 2016. “Make Me Feel” appears on Monáe’s forthcoming album Dirty Computer. She also released a second single ahead of the album, “Django Jane.”

In a since-deleted Facebook post, Prince’s DJ Lenka Paris went further into detail, saying the Purple One gave Monáe a synth line he wrote years ago that was ultimately used in “Make Me Feel.”

Read “Human After All: On Janelle Monáe in Hidden Figures and Moonlight” on the Pitch.