The Illuminati is an oft-referenced proper noun in today's culture. It's sort of a tongue-in-cheek assertion that several of the planet's important people — usually Jay-Z and Beyoncé — are part of an elite organization that has controls the world, or something like that.
Madonna is one of the stars often thrown into the Illuminati mix, but she'd never discussed the (probably) mythical collection of stars that supposedly exists among us. That all changed in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, in which she decided to cease discussing her new album, Rebel Heart, and engage in an Illuminat-centric conversation.
"People are always using the word Illuminati, but they're always referencing it in an incorrect way," she said. "People often accuse me of being a member of the Illuminati, and I think in today's pop culture the Illuminati is perceived as a group of powerful, successful people who are working behind the scenes to control the universe."
Sure, sure.
"But the thing is, I know who the real Illuminati are, and I know where that word comes from."
GAH.
"The real Illuminati were a group of scientists, artists, philosophers, writers, who came about in what is referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, after the Dark Ages, when there was no writing and no art and no creativity and no spirituality, and life was really at a standstill. And right after that, everything flourished. So we had people like Shakespeare and Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo and Isaac Newton, and all these great minds and great thinkers, and they were called Illuminati."
Oh. How anticlimactic. Kind of like her new LP, which was leaked early against her will. Still, we've got six new songs currently available through official means. Check out "Living For Love":
