“I appreciate the way you treat me, I’ve done a lot of things you still don’t hate me” is what Missy Elliott sings on one of my fave albums of hers: The Cookbook. It seems this is a very personal song, at least that is how I take it: there is this guy and she is happy that he puts up with her, even though she can be very stubborn. It might be even for Timbaland, her long time friend who she has been working with for.. forever!

I don’t know, but I cannot imagine her saying this to the general public. And I am on dangerous grounds here, so let me make clear that I write this from my own perspective and what I have seen in The Netherlands. Cause what I feel is that people do not appreciate Missy Elliott enough. She has always been a unique individual, one of the few female rappers (especially back in the day) and someone with an incredible creative mind. You can see that in her videos (ANY video), for example the video of Sock It To Me, in her Adidas designs for Respect M.E. and obviously her bold rhymes.

I always feel a bit sad when I notice she has released a new video with an amazing song, great beats and an entertaining story and visual style, just to see it fade away from the Dutch radio and tv within two weeks. She sure had some hits in Holland: Get Ur Freak On (obviously, hip hop classic!), One Minute Man (one of my guilty pleasures), She’s A Bitch, Car Wash ( :’) ) and 4 My People. But other songs, like her new WTF and even Pass That Dutch (?!) did not do that well in The Netherlands.

I was soo happy that she was ‘back’ with WTF, the song is good, the video is entertaining, Pharrell is involved, but yet it just does not become famous in The Netherlands and that is frustrating to me (especially because I passionately hate the dance music my country is so famous for). Thankfully if you look at hip hop dancing contests, her music is appreciated, but I do feel that the true star she really is, is not acknowledged enough. I mean, everybody sees Beyonce as some kind of goddess for working so hard and having such clean performances (I do too of course), but in my opinion Missy should get that exact same treatment.

The only problem with Missy is that she sometimes seems to be a bit off the radar. However, there seems to be a new album out soon and Michelle Obama said she had assembled a track with Missy Elliott, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae and Zendaya called ‘This Is for My Girls’ for the educational initiative Let Girls Learn. I think Missy never really was off the radar. She often produces, mixes and collaborates with other artists, and once she was really not making music due to an illness called Graves’ disease. I hope this illness will not keep her from becoming the real star that she is, but hopefully the States do know how to appreciate her and it is just Europe that is not helping!

Misdemeanor has not made any new albums since 2005, so it is time to show her new music some love and make sure that album drops fast. I think out of all the women in the hip hop business, Missy Elliott is really in the top 3, together with Beyonce and someone else that I am not yet sure of! 😉 She is gorgeous, talented, hard working and she just seems a very fun person to be around with. I am absolutely thrilled to hear new lyrics coming from her and I hope she will not be held back too much by the illness she had to face over the years.

Missy is ‘just making up her own thing’ and I am positive it will be great! ❤