As she began the audacious task of following up on her acclaimed debut LP The ArchAndroid - an album that topped critic's lists in 2010 all over the world - she took along some trusty, brave companions: the original music producers of The ArchAndroid, Nate "Rocket" Wonder and Chuck Lightning of Wondaland Productions. And together they crafted a new strain of jamming music they called "ish." In the hip hop community, "ish" is a euphemism for the profane four-letter word for excrement, but as Monáe explains, they set out, like proverbial alchemists, to turn lesser substances into gold.