Missy Elliott: she's back (maybe) and still like no one else

Back in the late 90s, before school, I used to watch MTV and binge on the often cartoonish and at times bonkers videos American rap and R&B stars created. Interspersed between the pedestrian fare of Deep Blue Something’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s were videos such as the Beastie Boys Intergalatic; ODB’s Got Your Money; anything by Busta Rhymes. They were otherworldly, captivating and bloody weird. The queen of them all, though, was Missy Elliott.

Her Timbaland-produced output from the late 90s to the mid-aughts was an idiosyncratic mix of incongruous samples, choruses that made no sense and funny noises, that could be imitated and repeated throughout the school day.

When she faded from public life due to health issues (she’s battled Graves’ disease for the past decade), there was a hole that hasn’t really been filled. Yes, weirdness still absolutely exists in rap (Future, Young Thug et al) and R&B has its one-offs (FKA twigs), but Missy’s mix of street culture, futuristic imagery and off-kilter production still sound and feel like no one else.

Eight years on since Ching-a-Ling from Step Up 2: The Streets, her last video, comes WTF (Where They From) featuring Pharrell.

Instantly recognisable, full of daft choreography and lyrics such as “I’m a Big Mac, make you want to eat that like: ‘yum, yum, yum, yack a to the yack’,” it shamelessly sounds like something she could have released in 2005. And, like when Aphex Twin released Syro – which paid no attention to anything else that’d been released in the 12 years since his last record – that’s kind of the point.

Singular talent doesn’t have to bend to the whims of the top 40, or what trend is big right now. Missy Elliott doing her best impression of Rihanna would be a disaster.

It follows her Super Bowl performance alongside Katy Perry this year, where – for many – she managed to steal Perry’s thunder even as she rode in on a giant tiger (or was it a lion?) and introduced the world to Left Shark.

Does it mark a bonafide comeback? Don’t be so sure. Fans have been here before, with the odd track being unexpectedly released but no album proper, for the best part of a decade.

What it is is a welcome bit of weird, fun pop that exists in its own pristine bubble. Get Ur Freak On.