Missy Elliott is touring as a headliner – and it’s time

Missy Elliott's first headliner tourwhich stops in Philadelphia on August 5, 2024, comes nearly three many years after the discharge of their debut album, “Dupa fly soup” in 1997.

For an experienced artist like Elliott – a rapper, singer, songwriter and producer whose achievements include six platinum albums, 4 Grammys and a Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – her first experience as a headliner seems alarmingly late.

As a scholar of American Studies and Black Pop MusicI used to be Write about And Discussion about Missy Elliott's artistic work for over a decade.

I imagine that Elliott's long wait to headline a tour has something to do along with her long-standing refusal to be dictated by the norms of the times.

From her Inspired by “The Matrix” Second grade treatment “Da Real World” for them Old-school, hip-hop influenced With her latest album “Under Construction,” Elliott consistently shows that she doesn’t wish to belong to this time – or not less than believes she does.

As the name of her tour suggests, she sees herself as “out of this world.”

“Radio the clock”

Scientist Black Studies, Queer Studies And Disability Studies have examined the role of time in maintaining anti-black attitudes, homophobia, transphobia, and disability stereotypes.

They argue that describing America as post-racial society hinders the fight against racism in the current, that treating queer and transgender identities as something latest or simply a phase leads to LGBTQ+ youth being denied healthcare, and that advocating for people who find themselves “moving beyond” their disability or making progress despite their disability ignores systemic barriers.

To defend themselves against such ideas, these scientists declare that black people “Radio the clock“by naming how we still live subsequently or the Afterlife of slaveryQueer and transsexual people as well “queer” time from Embrace and document queer and transsexual stories. And disabled people “Crip” time – to reclaim the derogatory term – by slowing down and being attentive to their bodies.

Missy Elliott is a black woman with a disability – she has Graves’ disease and severe anxiety – WHO breaks cultural norms of gender and sexuality.

Her music often deals with time and temporality in ways in which parallel Funk the Clock and Queering and Cripping Time. It plays with the past and the long run – treating each as alternate worlds, even utopias that reject the hostilities of the current.

Soup After Fly Futures

On July 12, 2024, Missy Elliott made history as the primary black woman, first American, first rapper and only the second music group – the Beatles were the primary – whose song NASA broadcasts into space.

“Missy already has experience in bringing space-centric storytelling and futuristic imagery to her music videos, so the opportunity to work on something out of the ordinary is a great fit for her,” said NASA spokeswoman Brittany Brown.

Indeed, the visual aesthetics of Elliott's first three albums are compelling examples of such futuristic—if not Afrofuturist—production, featuring black cyborgs, space travel, and post-apocalyptic worlds.

Scientists have shown that Afrofuturistic music of black women can be often queerand Elliott's work is not any exception.

Take, for instance, their 1997 hit “Socks it 2 mea song a couple of woman in search of a sexual partner for the night. The woman wants a partner who will “bring the evil out of me” and permit her to “show you things you can't believe.”

Importantly, Elliott doesn’t use gendered pronouns on this song. This encourages listeners to assume the girl's partner as someone who could possibly be of various genders and sexualities.

The music video is about in the long run and features Elliott and black rappers Lil' Kim and Da Brat in Mega-human-like Outfits. Elliott's suit scary anticipates the Gmail logo which premiered years later. The three women fend off an invasion of robots that attack a red planet inhabited exclusively by black women.

Futuristic queerness can be present in her 2001 Grammy-winning song “Join the Freak.” The music video is about in a post-apocalyptic underground cave where blacks, Asians, queers and folks with disabilities live and dance closely together.

Like me written elsewherethe song's use of the term “freak” is telling. “Freak” reflects how people of color, disabled people, and queers have been viewed throughout US history attributable to their perceived perversion. And Elliott alludes to those histories musically, stuttering within the song, using gender-neutral pronouns, and rapping over a beat that blends black and Asian sounds.

In this manner, the song and video “Get Ur Freak On” create an imagined future during which marginalized groups find refuge and solidarity.

Turn it over and reverse it

While Elliott's first three albums explored the long run, her last three illuminated the past – most clearly through clothing and music examples from the Nineteen Eighties.

Take, for instance, her 2002 Grammy hit “Work on it.” The song accommodates samples from Nineteen Eighties rap groups RUN-DMC and Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three. It can be a really sexual song during which Elliott talks about oral sex, amongst other things, and during which she famously raps backwards.

As black feminist and queer scholar Mecca Jamilah Sullivan argues, the song converges “backward” sexual pleasures and sonic and erotic “reversal”.” This, she writes, suggests “a wide selection of potential erotic differences and sexual deviations that could possibly be considered backward or perverse.”

Elliott's performance on this song is emblematic of what I call “musical aesthetics of inappropriateness“” – a celebration of sexual desires and practices that defy the norms that govern black women’s sexuality.

When Missy Elliott stops in Philadelphia, she’s going to not only take audiences into the past, but in addition into her vision of the long run. And she’s going to achieve this in service to those marginalized by our society today due to their race, gender, sexuality or disability.

Fans are invited to assume and imagine that one other world is feasible – they simply should change the times.

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