More than a year after releasing the original version of REDMERCEDES, Oregon-born rapper Aminé has released a remix featuring none other than Missy Elliott, as well as London rapper AJ Tracey.
It’s a huge boost for the 23-year-old artist, whose original track was noted for taking clear influence from Elliott and other ’90s-early ’00s artists, particularly the stretched-out beats and sirens.
The remix is a very welcome return for Elliott, who immediately (and obviously) steals the scene. Tracey’s guest verse rounds out the remix, his deeper voice and slick accent perfectly complementing Elliott and Aminé’s own tones.
Back in January, Missy Elliott shared I’m Better, her first new single since 2015’s standalone WTF (Where They From). She also features on Mary J Blige’s new album Strength Of A Woman, contributing a guest verse to the track Glow Up, also featuring Quavo and DJ Khaled. This month, she also features on the cover of Elle, which comes with an in-depth new interview. 2017 also marks two decades since her groundbreaking debut album Supa Dupa Fly, which will be re-released later this year.
Images: Instagram
Almost a year since her last single and nearly twelve since her last album, Missy Elliott has returned with a new single and video, I’m Better ft. Lamb. The song has been unleashed alongside a trailer teasing a documentary on the legendary hip-hop artist, set for release later this year.
There’s a menacing, suspenseful minimalism to to the track, with deliberate air between the instrumental layers. Taking influence from heady trap beats, sirens and even a dash of autotune, it’s tense, it’s dangerous, and perfectly 2017.
The choreography is phenomenal, featuring dancers hanging from ribbons and later appearing to be underwater.
https://youtu.be/TwyPsUd9LAk
Missy Elliott returned in late 2015 with the banging WTF ft. Pharrell, and in February last year she dropped Pep Rally during the Super Bowl.
In a new interview with FACT, Missy has reveals that her spark has been relit. “Always music, that’s pretty much what Missy do: music, all day, all night long,” she says, speaking about how the I’m Better video took a month to rehearse. “I wanted it to look like art instead of just a video. I wanted the dance movement to be challenging.”
She has also revealed that she’s got enough enough music recorded to make five or six albums, although we might never hear it. “I got enough records to make an album, but I would never say a day or time that it would happen because those fans are brutal and they will stone me if I told a date and it didn’t drop on that date.”
Below, watch the trailer for the upcoming documentary:
https://youtu.be/BmZ_Vt1Lbuc
Image: Youtube
The lead-up to the new remake of Ghostbusters has been expectedly huge, with fans not only eager to catch the new cast in action, but the music, too. The complete soundtrack has now been unveiled, and the jam-packed playlist features an extraordinarily diverse group of artists, from 5 Seconds of Summer, Wolf Alice, Zayn and Fall Out Boy to G-Eazy, Jeremih and even DMX.
The official theme song by Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott has also been unveiled. It’s quite an abrupt remake on the famous Ray Parker Jr original.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, goes the saying, but Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott unfortunately missed the memo on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of both artists in their own rights, and you can’t deny how catchy the huge beat is, while Missy’s verse is short but slick. However, this is just not the kind of sound I’d ever want or expect to be the Ghostbusters theme song. See for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AQ44nPrRTM
Ghostbusters: Soundtrack Track List
01. Ghostbusters – WALK THE MOON
02. Saw it Coming – G-Eazy x Jeremih
03. Good Girls – Elle King
04. Girls Talk Boys – 5 Seconds of Summer
05. wHo – ZAYN*
06. Ghostbusters – Pentatonix*
07. Ghoster – Wolf Alice*
08. Ghostbusters (I’m Not Afraid) – Fall Out Boy featuring Missy Elliott
09. Get Ghost – Mark Ronson, Passion Pit, & A$AP Ferg
10. Party Up (Up In Here) – DMX
11. Rhythm of the Night – DeBarge
12. American Woman – Muddy Magnolias
13. Want Some More – Beasts of Mayhem
14. Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
* Does Not Appear In The Film
Ghostbusters premieres in cinemas from July 15.
Image: The Wrap
Tweet and Missy Elliott first collaborated back in 2002 for the steamy Oops (Oh My), and again in 2005 or Turn Da Lights Off. Now, the pair have joined forces once more for Somebody Else Will, off Tweet’s forthcoming album Charlene – her first since It’s Me Again in 2002.
The adrenaline-filled intro immediately features Elliott, with piano trickles filling out the backing instrumentals. Tweet’s sultry voice comes in smoothly, the pair’s opposing tones complementing one another so well. The soulful R&B backing track gives off laid back vibe, while both artists wax lyrical about being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t share the same feelings.
Tweet’s harmonies distribute an important message for anyone dealing with a breakup, or if they are stuck in a relationship with someone who doesn’t appreciate them. “If you don’t love me, you don’t have to love me, someone else can love me right”.
Tweet has spoken about her friendship with Elliott in an interview with The BoomBox. “We’re still sisters,” she said. “We’ve known each other since ‘94 before either of us ‘hit’ the world. We grinded together.”
She continued, elaborating on their relationship: “She could send me something from the studio and know that I’m doing something to it that’ll be fly. There’s no real formula. It’s just family. We all lived in motels and traveled and did everything together so we know what the grind is. That’s a family bond that will never be broken.”
Tweet has been quiet since dropping her last EP in 2013. At the end of last year, she signed onto independent label eOne Music. Elliott, meanwhile, made on hell of a comeback late last year, releasing WTF and Pep Rally. She also won the Innovator Award at the Women In Music ceremony.
Tweet’s album Charlene will be released on February 26th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pN17ZnBX1c
Image: Twitter
Hold up Beyonce. Missy Elliott had something to show us this weekend too.
Elliott’s new song Pep Rally was featured in a Super Bowl advertisement for Amazon’s Echo, a new device that answers questions and, apparently, plays music. The ad stars Elliott alongside Alec Baldwin, Jason Schwartzman and Dan Marino. The song comes in this the final few seconds, closing the ad with the new banger pounding through the device while Elliott uses a dance party to break up an argument.
The Fader reports that the song was also leaked, “seemingly unauthorized,” on YouTube across the weekend. By the afternoon, it was available to stream via Spotify and buy on iTunes.
The song basically has built-in choreography, so it’s impossible to not dance. The stop-start intro gets your attention like a race car revving up before winning a race, while the thumping beat keeps your heart pumping as the Elliott’s strong voice commands you to follow her instructions.
The lyrics echo a cheerleading coach with their encouraging, yet hard tone, as she tells you to keep moving your body. They describe the high energy crowd that will soon be watching Elliott perform this song (we hope soon?). “Screaming and shaking, man, we at the pep rally// Aw, aw, aw, go ‘head and dip at it// The go-go playing my jam, now let me shake my jelly// Jumping and thumping, man, I got the crowd yelling”.
This track follows Elliott’s first single after her long break WTF. It seems that Missy Elliott is well and truly back in action after a rough few years. Surely winning the Innovator of the Year Award at Women In Music was a great confidence boost; a trait that we can definitely hear throughout this track.
How many schools and wannabe POTUS will use this song at their rallies during the next few months?
We shall wait and see. Listen to the track here and watch the ad below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTz5jAn-XX8
Image: Billboard
We all need a little encouragement from influential people during our careers, especially when it’s only just beginning. Missy Elliott is living proof of what could come from it.
In a new interview on Pharrell Williams‘ Beats 1 show OTHERtone, Elliott revealed that she may not have been where she is today if it weren’t for Puff Daddy. She mentioned that she had once considered giving up on hip-hop to focus on her label, when he intervened.
“I wanted to have a label, and just have artists and do writing and producing,” she said. However, after seeing Puffy at a recording studio, her plans soon changed.
“He said ‘I got this record I want you to hop on’, and I was so nervous,” she revealed, adding that she wanted to do the recording without anyone else in the room. The track was a remix of Gina Thompson The Things You Do, which became one of the hits that helped launch her career.
She laughed, looking back at Puffy’s reaction to her addition of “Hee Hee Hee Hee How”. “Little did I know, that was going to be the tagline every time, like the DJs would always bring that back,” she said.
She couldn’t speak highly enough of Puffy and acknowledged his huge influence in the world of hip-hop. “I don’t think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. He intertwined hip-hop and R&B and he made it so people weren’t intimidated,” she said.
In November last year, Missy Elliott opened up about her anxiety issues and how that impacted on her career. Following her comeback with WTF featuring Pharrell, she went on to win Innovator of the Year at Women In Music. Now we know who we have to thank for that.
The Billboard Women In Music awards aired last Friday, where some amazing women in the music industry were celebrated for their hard work this year, including Lady Gaga, who controversially accepted the Woman of the Year award, and the legendary Missy Elliott accepting the Women In Music Innovator award.
Her improvised speech was heartwarming, to-the-point and full of genuine gratitude. Speaking through her tears, she apologised for being, “such a mush head” as she thanks all the incredible women in the room, as well as her mother and “the other side of [her] brain”, perhaps better known to some as Timbaland.
2015 has seen Elliott’s immense comeback, with the release of her ridiculously good new single and video WTF (Where They From), featuring Pharrell Williams. She’s recently opened up about her anxiety and why she took such a long break from music. “The current attention span challenged culture is just waiting for her to fail, and the only way to successfully negotiate that hazard is to come out with a record so hot it can’t be denied,” Billboard interviewer Jonathan Ringen wrote.
In an interview with Vice-owned i-D, when asked whether she lost her confidence, she revealed, “So all that time, I was doing Missy and also making sure I was giving all of these other artists a different sound too. That was hard for me. At first it wasn’t but then when it started piling up on a plate, it was tough. A lot of people don’t do this. You can count on a couple of hands probably how many artists also produce and write, both for themselves and for others and are able to be successful at both things. So I needed a break.”
She detailed her thought processes throughout her years of struggle. “I felt like, ‘How do I fit in’? I’m battling. But then I never fit in! The whole time, I’ve never fit in! But it was still that battle. Do people still want to hear something creative and risky at this point? People might not be accepting of your music.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_3Qgib6RQ]
Read her wonderful speech in full (via Billboard):
“Instead of me writing it down, I just want to go off the top of my head. First of all, I’m so humbly grateful. I’ve been in this industry for over 20 years, and I stand here for all the women who may have been told ‘you don’t fit the mold, you’re not good enough, you won’t make it.’ Look at me, I’m here, and I’m standing here for y’all because I see so many powerful women in here. Bold, fierce, sassy, and I want y’all to know that I stand here, and I was told a lot of those things, and I’m sorry that I’m…I’m such a mush head. I dreamed of days like this. I was that kid that used to write on my mother’s walls and my family would come over and ask her, ‘Is your child OK?’ I just had songs written all over the walls, and as I got in high school, my friends, I think they thought I was creative because I was able to change my F to a B, and as time went on, I realized I was different and unique and not a follower.
“I’m sorry, y’all, you know, I done cried so much, I got my bottom lashes in my eyes. I want y’all to continue to be creative and don’t be scared to take risks. I’ve had to take a lot of risks, and being a woman in this industry for me, as an artist, a writer and producer, I’ve had my ups and downs. There’s times that I have wanted to give up, but God had another plan for me, and if it wouldn’t have been for Him, I wouldn’t be standing here. I just want to say that I thank y’all. I thank Billboard, and I’m sorry, I’m just doing this the old-school way, I might just pull out a scroll on y’all real quick. But you know how you get up here and you start saying people’s names, then you get out of the event, everybody calls you like, ‘You ain’t say my name, but I was there,’ so you know…I’m trying to make sure I don’t forget anybody.
“I want to thank my mother who has been my backbone, and she has loved me not because I became a celebrity or what I would do for her. She has just loved me unconditionally, and I want to thank her. I want to thank everybody in Virginia where I’m from, two up, two down, 757. I want to thank Timbaland. That is my other side of my brain, and we were broke together and we made money together. We have cussed each other out. We have hugged each other. I love him through thick and thin. Pharrell, I love you. Another one of my VA family. Magoo, Mona Scott Young, who has held me down from top, Karen Body, Yandy over there, my whole glam squad. I got Misa Glow, Angie, Atlantic Records, I love y’all. Where y’all at? Holla! I see y’all! Dave Meyers, Hi Hat, Hype Williams, June, Billy B, Sylvia Rhone, I love you. I don’t know where you at. My fans, the ME addicts, Billboard once again, and I want to thank Janet, because she’s been someone who I could call at any time.
“Y’all don’t know, I’ve been through so much. Mentally and physically, I have went through a lot, so standing here today means so much. I thank you Janet, and lastly, I want to thank all those women who came before me, and I don’t know if y’all know how important that is to me because they kicked down the door for me to be able to walk through. So, I don’t stand here to take the credit. Because of them, those ones before me, I thank you, and I thank my peers and those after me, but those ones before me, I want to tell y’all that I love y’all so much and Aaliyah, I hope you’re looking down and that you are proud of me. I miss you much and Ciara, I love you so much, sis. I thank you, I thank you. I love you so much. And I thank y’all once again.”
Watch the Missy Elliott Dance Tribute to the 2015 Innovator performed by an incredible troupe of dancers below.
Missy Elliott has finally made her long-awaited return to the stage, and has performed her huge track WTF (Where They From) for the first time ever. Performing alongside guest artist Pharrell Williams, the pair blew the audience away during last night’s finale of NBC’s The Voice, and further cemented both their reputations as two of the most innovative and exciting artists in… well, ever!
Williams, who is actually a judge on the show, joined Elliott and a huge group of dancers for a real-life reenactment of their incredible film clip. Complete with train turnstyles and carriages, the actual puppets from the clip and THAT mirrorball suit, Missy lead her troupe fearlessly through their high energy performance.
If the release of WTF (Where They From) didn’t herald her return just enough, this performance definitely did. Aside from a brief appearance during Katy Perry‘s Superbowl Half-Time show, it’s been a long and quiet 10 years from Missy Elliott. However, she has now well and truly broken her silence, and in doing so, released one of the biggest tracks of this year. Coinciding with its release, Elliott also gave a raw interview with Billboard, and whilst she covered reasons for her notable departure from the music biz (including severe anxiety), one can’t help but feel extremely excited that she is a) releasing music again and b) seemingly gearing up for something really, really good. 2016 has never looked better now with Missy Elliott back in the picture.
Missy Elliott is a name that sits right up there with the best of musical royalty. Not only one of the most influential female artists of the past two decades, but also a style icon and auteur in her own right, the world has been a little less colourful without new additions to her solo repertoire in the last ten years. Despite releasing five top ten albums between 1997 and 2005, and continuing work as a writer and producer for other artists since then, her extended hiatus from original work has surely been felt. For those who need a reminder of just who Missy Elliott is, she burst on to the seen with debut single The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) in ’97 and proceeded to reinvent hip-hop and R&B with her off kilter rhythms and futuristic stylings. Elliott recently caught up with Billboard Magazine off the back of her new single WTF featuring Pharrell Williams to talk about just what made her hang up those hoop earrings for so long.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHcyJPTTn9w]
Jonathan Ringen who conducted the interview explains that as Elliott sees it “the current attention span challenged culture is just waiting for her to fail, and the only way to successfully negotiate that hazard is to come out with a record so hot it can’t be denied.” And in her own words “People are quick to be like, you’re irrelevant, you’re a flop, you’re washed up.” It’s an amazing thing to read coming from of an artist that is often lauded as one of the most interesting and unique voices of our generation. It is a reminder that despite all the glitz, underneath that mirror ball make up is a real human being. Over the past week fans have been left reeling by WTF and it’s accompanying video clip (if you haven’t seen it yet, give yourself five lashings with your headphones and press play below). With an impact that can’t be understated, the clip racked up 3 million streams in its first day alone. At this juncture though, it is an important time to understand the journey that has been taken to get to this point and the struggles that have been endured.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_3Qgib6RQ]
We previously published a feature about the hip hop world finally embracing depression, with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Drake bringing long awaited serious discussion to light. In Elliott’s case, coming up with serious anxiety in the 1990’s must have been very hard, and perhaps the path has been slowly paved so that she can be more open about the troubles that have plagued her. In the interview, Elliott discusses the serious impacts on her health during the height of her career, resulting with her being diagnosed with Graves’ disease (an autoimmune condition affecting the thyroid). The impacts were obvious with her losing weight, hair loss, and other physical changes. Sharaya J, a rapper and dancer signed to Elliott’s Goldmind label commented that “what that does to a person, being a public figure and knowing that people are looking, judging? That’s a tough thing.” And, despite having an outwardly gregarious persona, it’s a recurring concern for Elliott, who is often paralysed by public perception.
Her shyness also extends to her creative process with the artist commenting that she never records in front of anybody. Ringen discusses how this mirrors the way Elliott immersed herself in music as a child. She has spoken out before about surviving sexual abuse at the hands of her cousin and frequently seeing her mother beaten by her father. Much like being alone in the studio lets her escape the outside world, as a child her bedroom was a place of solace: “ My room would become a whole other world once I shut that door,” she says. “That’s why I believe my videos are so important to me. It was Alice in Wonderland: my bed, my closet – it would all turn into something else. And I would write and sing and block out whatever was going on.”
Listening to Elliott talk now, she seems to have a good handle on herself and what she needs to survive the sometimes harsh music business, keeping a mountain sanctuary home so she can escape from the city when she needs to relax her mind. It seems then, the timing was just right when in 2014, Pharrell Williams invited her to the studio, and Katy Perry’s team reached out to have her pair up with the songstress for the Super Bowl half time show. The cards all fell into place and set a long awaited return into trajectory. But even then, in that moment of grandeur at the Super Bowl, Elliott’s anxiety would not rest and saw her in hospital with a full blown panic attack the night before the performance. As she stood side of stage she recalls commenting “I know if I can get over this step, then I know all my dance moves will be on point… I know it was nothing but the grace of God that lifted me up and took me through that performance.”
While sitting back and watching the epic back catalogue of Missy videos, not to mention the mesmerising latest effort for WTF, it is with new eyes that we can appreciate a woman who is always pushing through those personal boundaries to exceed expectations set by herself as much as everyone else. It is also a reminder that the artists that we admire and appreciate, at their core, are just as scared and uncertain as the rest of us. It is a vulnerability that should be embraced, and not one that should need to be hidden. We look forward to seeing what else Missy has in store for her next album, due out likely some time in 2016. Something tells me she won’t be disappointing us, herself, or anyone else for that matter.
https://youtu.be/cjIvu7e6Wq8
The queen is back. After seven years of silence, Missy Elliott has returned and she is damn well still working it, still getting her freak on and shaking her pom pom. Taking the internet by storm with a new track and video, WTF (Where They From), featuring Pharrell, has set the online world ablaze with a rekindled enthusiasm for her particular brand of old school hip hop.
Having faded from sight over the last decade, partly due to health issues (Elliott was diagnosed with hyperthyroid disorder Graves’ disease), Missy Elliott has still been a strong presence behind the scenes; writing and producing for dozens of artists. But this year saw her return as a performing artist with live appearances at the Super Bowl, and in February she confirmed that she was recording her seventh album with long time collaborator Timbaland.
With just an amateur video sneaking out early last month, showing Missy filming in an LA back street, and a teaser snippet released in late October, WTF, feels as though it rocked up to the party yelling “SURPRISE!” – and looking fucking fabulous! The video was directed by Dave Meyers and Missy herself, and, like the track, it is both a throwback to Elliott’s 1990’s heyday but also keeping pace with 2015.
Heavy with her trademark militant beats, Missy has lost nothing of her sass or her rapid fire flow. Ending lines with an air horn style vocal trip, WTF feels like the stomping, tribal tunes that were always her signature sound. And even ten years on, Elliott is still fierce AF. Her opening outfit of a mirrorball suit, complete with recognisable talons and glittered lips is just the first of many. Mashing street style with the 90’s, there’s a artistic weirdness to the clip. It’s like Missy has sat back while the likes of Lady Gaga have done their best, until now when she’s stormed in with the original goods, casting everyone else in the shade.
With Beyoncé favourites Les Twins doing their thing, clever camera work and Missy as a piece of walking art, thanks to her make up artist, WTF is a veritable visual feast. Not forgetting Pharrell’s appearance in marionette form, even though I find them unavoidably creepy I can’t help but appreciate the cheeky little mount from model Pharrell. And just in case the whole thing was feeling too retro for you, they’ve even thrown in hover boards. Break dancing hover boards! But the best news is that, this time, you don’t need to watch endless rounds of MTV to catch WTF, you can see it right here, right now!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_3Qgib6RQ&w=560&h=315]