Missy Elliott recently made a music comeback and is still as Supa Dupa Fly as ever, but she is proceeding with caution.
Last week, the rapper released the single "WTF (Where They From)," her first solo track in three years, which will be featured on her upcoming seventh studio album. As of Thursday, it is No. 14 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs chart and No. 91 on its main Hot 100 chart.
Her last album, The Cookbook, was released in 2005 and was certified Gold in the United States, selling half of the number of copies Missy had been accustomed to selling since she released her hit debut record Supa Dupa Fly in 1997. In 2012, she released two promotional tracks produced by and featuring longtime collaborator Timbaland to iTunes. They were even less successful.
"I have to be very careful," she told Billboard, which features the rapper on the cover of its Nov. 28 issue, in comments published on Thursday. "It's different now. People are quick to be like, ‘You're irrelevant, you're a flop, you're washed up.'"
Missy is also featured on Janet Jackson's new single "BURNITUP!," which the pop singer debuted three months ago at the first concert on her new world tour, her first in four years.
Missy had herself made a stage comeback too this year, performing at events such as the Essence Music Festival and the Super Bowl, where she appeared with Katy Perry.
The rapper told Billboard she had a panic attack about the performance the night before.
"Like, IVs in my arm, everything," she said. "Nobody knew."
After the show, Williams contacted her and coaxed her to record new music. He is featured on "WTF (Where They From)."
In addition to dropping her new album, which has no release date, Missy is currently thinking about touring—possibly with Beyoncé again. In 2004, Bey, the rapper, Tamia and Alicia Keys embarked on the Verizon Ladies First Tour.
"I'd love to do one with B," she said.
Missy's comeback comes four years after she revealed she was diagnosed in 2008 with Graves' disease, an incurable but manageable autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid. It causes hyperthyrpoidism, in which a person's thyroid gland makes more thyroid hormone than their body requires.
"It causes hair loss, your eyes bulge," Missy told Billboard. "My blood pressure was always up from just overworking."
Left untreated, side effects of Graves' disease also include weight loss. Missy's weight has fluctuated over the past few years. The rapper takes medication to control the disease.