{"id":5678,"date":"2024-08-05T18:12:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5678"},"modified":"2024-12-31T19:20:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T00:20:49","slug":"for-the-first-time-missy-elliott-tours-as-a-headliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=5678","title":{"rendered":"For The First Time Missy Elliott Tours As A Headliner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missy Elliott tours as a headliner \u2212 and it\u2019s about time.<\/h2>\n
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Missy Elliott\u2019s first-ever headline tour<\/a>, which stops in Philadelphia on Aug. 5, 2024, comes nearly three decades after she released her debut album, \u201cSupa Dupa Fly,\u201d<\/a> in 1997.<\/p>\n

For a seasoned artist like Elliott \u2013 a rapper, singer, songwriter and producer whose accomplishments include six platinum-selling albums<\/a>, four Grammys<\/a> and an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> \u2013 her first experience as a headliner may seem shockingly overdue.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of American studies and Black popular music<\/a>, I\u2019ve been writing about<\/a> and discussing Missy Elliott\u2019s artistry<\/a> for over a decade.<\/p>\n

I believe that Elliott\u2019s long wait to headline a tour is in sync with how she\u2019s long refused to be governed by norms of time.<\/p>\n

From her \u201cMatrix\u201d-inspired<\/a> sophomore treatment \u201cDa Real World\u201d to her old-school, hip-hop-influenced<\/a> album \u201cUnder Construction,\u201d Elliott consistently shows that she desires to be \u2013 or believes she is \u2013 not of this time.<\/p>\n

As the name of her tour suggests, she envisions herself \u201cOut of This World.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEE MISSY ELLIOTT LIVE IN HER FIRST HEADLINE TOUR<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Funk the clock\u2019<\/h2>\n

Scholars in Black studies<\/a>, queer studies<\/a> and disability studies<\/a> have explored the role of time in upholding anti-Blackness, homophobia, transphobia and ableism.<\/p>\n

They argue that describing America as a post-racial society<\/a> hinders the fight against racism in the present, that treating queer and trans identities as something new or just a phase leads to LGBTQ+ youth being denied health care, and that championing people who move \u201cpast\u201d or progress through their disability ignores systemic barriers.<\/p>\n

To push back against such ideas, these scholars explain, Black people \u201cfunk the clock<\/a>\u201d by naming how we still live in the wake<\/a> or the afterlives of slavery<\/a>. Similarly, queer and trans people \u201cqueer\u201d time<\/a> by embracing<\/a> and documenting queer and trans histories<\/a>. And disabled people \u201ccrip\u201d time<\/a> \u2013 to reclaim the pejorative term \u2013 by slowing down and caring for their bodies.<\/p>\n

Missy Elliott is a Black woman with a disability \u2013 she has Graves\u2019 disease and severe anxiety<\/a> \u2013 who breaks cultural norms of gender and sexuality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her music often engages time and temporality in ways that align with funking the clock and queering and cripping time. She plays with past and future \u2013 treating both as alternative worlds, even utopias, that reject the hostilities of the present.<\/p>\n