Missy Elliott just flipped her career path and reversed it. The “Work It” rapper, 43, made her talked-about return to the public eye alongside Katy Perry at the Super Bowl earlier this month, and now she has plans to record new music.
After years spent quietly away from the music business, Elliott took to Twitter this week to share photos of herself in the studio with her longtime collaborator Timbaland. “Me & @Timbaland bk 2 the drawing board studio dirty beats!” she captioned the shot.
Me & @Timbaland bk 2 the drawing board studio dirty beats! pic.twitter.com/0svovxBFRg
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) February 11, 2015
Elliott and Timbaland also seem to be bringing in some new blood as A$AP Ferg shared a photo with the two musicians via Instagram, writing, “I’ve been acquainted with Family @iammissyelliott @timbaland we can’t be stopped now!!!”
If the celebrated performer completes a new studio album, it will be her first since 2005’s The Cookbook. For years she has been hyping a seventh album called Block Party, but it never saw the light of day and was replaced by two non-album singles. Elliott, who has been battling an immune system disorder called Graves disease for years, also recently attributed her hiatus to a desire to put out a perfect product.
“If u drop Classic/Timeless records u don’t have 2 put out a record every other day because it will last! #musicwisdom,” Elliott tweeted on Monday, Feb. 9. “I won’t drop anything until I feel it in my spirit that it’s a game changer but my old joints still 20 yrs ahead.”
It may finally be the right time for the “Lose Control” rapper as she is having a major moment after her Super Bowl performance with halftime show star Perry. Following the gig, sales of Elliott’s previously recorded music rose 282 percent.
The Grammy-winning rapper isn’t the only throwback performer planning a comeback, however. “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” rapper-turned-movie star Will Smith spoke of his own plans to return to music this week.
“I went into the studio with Kanye,” he told the Press Association. “I’m thinking about it. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet but I’m exploring. I’m in a creative ceiling.”
“My son tells me I have to write out the things I don’t like,” he added off his son Jaden Smith, with whom he recorded the 1999 single “Just the Two of Us.” “I can’t write and stop, I have to keep going and going and write them out. I’ve never worked like that before but I think I might give that a shot.”
Before transitioning to focus fully on his blockbuster acting career, Smith recorded with DJ Jazzy Jeff and released four solo studio albums. His first, 1997’s Big Wille Style, went multiplatinum and was followed by 1999’s Willennium, 2002’s Born to Reign, and 2005’s Lost and Found.
