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Janelle Monae Today Show Cut Off
Janelle Monae Today Show Cut Off

Janelle Monae Cut Off During 'Today Show' Police Brutality Message

Lenny Kravitz, Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill, Lion Babe, Thundercat, SZA & More Rock The Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, NY.

Janelle Monae's vigorous calls for social justice apparently don't sit well with NBC's programming. During a live performance on The Today Show Friday morning, Monae briefly spoke out against the rampant police brutality and racialized violence that's plagued the country's cities and suburbs. However, the R&B songstress was almost immediately cut off by the program, with cameras shifting away and an anchor speaking over her still-live microphone.

The moment took place following Monae's performance of her 2010 hit "Tightrope," and although she was censored by NBC, her full statement has been recorded. Read it in full below:

God bless America. God bless all, all the lost lives to police brutality. We want white America to know that we stand tall today. We want black America to know that we stand tall today. We will not be silenced.

Monae had also performed her feminist anthem "Yoga" with help from Jidenna and the Wondaland band and her new Black Lives Matter anthem "Hell You Talmbout," the latter of which was conspicuously ommitted from the television broadcast. Still, Ms. Janelle and her entire clique should be commended for seizing the moment and speaking out against police killings of black bodies, despite network producers' best efforts to silence their voice. Watch video from the Today Show below, along with Jidenna and Monae's recent conversation with New York's Hot 97 below.