Missy Elliott has dropped the video for her new song "WTF (Where They From)," featuring a verse from fellow Virginian Pharrell Williams. It's been over a decade since the iconic late '90s/early 2000s futurist rapper has released an album and three years since she released a single. The new video, co-directed by Elliott and her longtime collaborator Dave Meyers, marks the artist's return to her roots. Watch "WTF (Where They From)" below.
The track itself is classic Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, and the video absolutely fills the void of her too-long hiatus. Between the various talented modern dancers highlighted throughout and the directorial decision to depict Pharrell's cameo by way of marionette puppets, the video plays like a celebration of NYC street performers. Her wardrobe changes are as epic as ever: in some scenes she is dressed as the most hip-hop disco ball on earth, in others she channels Roy Litchenstein, whereas other scenes find her rocking Princess Amidala's makeup.
As Stereogum reports, the rapper teased the new release during a surprise Halftime appearance on Monday Night Football last month. Since then, she caught-up with the times by finally joining Instagram in order to promote the new single.
While an entire generation has now grown-up without the excitement of a new Missy Elliott video, it's not like the artist was completely out of the spotlight during her hiatus. As Pitchfork points out, she did release a few singles back in 2012 with Timbaland. At the time there was still talk of her eighth studio album which has yet to become a reality.
During her break from releasing groundbreaking videos of her own the rapper produced and wrote a number of chart-topping, Grammy-nominated songs for artists like Monica and Jennifer Hudson. She gained some notoriety for her remixes, including a remix of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" as well as a remix of Jack U's track "Take U There." In that time she also made guest appearances on a number of songs including Demi Lovato's "All Night Long" and J. Cole's "Nobody's Perfect." Listen to "Jack U There" below.
