After knocking out six classic or near-classic albums between 1997 and 2005, Missy Elliott's madcap pace came to a screeching halt. A few scattered tracks and 10 years later, Elliott is primed for a comeback, hot off her spot with Katy Perry and the Super Bowl halftime show and with a knockout Pharrell collaboration "WTF" out now.
But what kept the boundary-pushing rapper/producer out of the game for so long? In Elliott's new Billboard cover story, she talks about how Graves' disease -- which she was first diagnosed with after losing an extreme amount of weight in 2008 -- affected her body and her life. "It causes hair loss, your eyes bulge,” Elliott says. “My blood pressure was always up from just overworking.”
Billboard Cover: Missy Elliott on Her Comeback -- 'There Is Only One Missy'