Missy Elliott Is Back!
As Pitchfork reminds us: ‘While Missy disappeared for the better part of a decade, now these millions of black girls can see her clearly, can see someone who looks like them. Look around in the last year and a half and Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott is unmissable: Missy supa dupa fly in your bodega’s cold case and supa dupa fly at the Super Bowl last year; Missy on the ACE train alongside artist renditions of other legendary MCs like Tupac and uh, J. Cole; Missy popping with Dan Marino; Missy not quite saving the new Ghostbusters theme; Missy kicking it on Alec Baldwin’s leather couch and jiggling with his marionette; Missy and Michelle Obama onstage together at SXSW; Missy shouting out Salt-N-Pepa at VH1’s “Hip Hop Honors.†And that was all before Missy manifested in the backseat of FLOTUS and James Corden’s SUV two weeks ago to drop “Get Ur Freak On†for “Carpool Karaoke.â€
But the big [elephant sound] in the room is that despite Missy being seen, she can barely be heard. Sure, many of the above instances are tied in to Missy’s long-promised return, in the form of “WTF (Where They From)†and “Pep Rally,†touted as the first new Missy Elliott music in years. But they’re like giving Saltines to someone crawling across the Sahara.’
