Missy Elliott’s slow creep of a comeback over the past year — her rousing 2015 Super Bowl appearance, her recent singles “WTF (Where They From)” and “Pep Rally” — did little to prepare the audience at the Warner Music post-Grammy party at Milk Studios in Hollywood for the explosive 45-minute set she performed.
The crowd was already excited to see her, but once she took the stage a merciless full-scale assault on the senses began: a blazing set filled with hits and album cuts, 10 dancers, two hype men, a rocking light show (with occasional lasers), dry ice and a video screen behind the stage playing edits of the songs’ videos or high-energy patterns. And that’s not including Elliott herself, who worked the crowd relentlessly, exhorting people to wave their hands and jump, dance, yell — and at once point ran out into the crowd and jumped on a couch in the middle of the floor and delivered nearly an entire song there.
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“Get Ur Freak On,” “The Rain,” “Hot Boyz,” “Work It,” “Pass the Dutch,” “WTF” (before which she called out to Pharrell in the audience) — the set was a nonstop Missy Elliott mixtape with a multisensory overload of videos, lights, dancers, a throbbing beat, and the artist herself. And it was all for possibly the most business-heavy crowd she could play outside of a private corporate event.
“Ya’ll real corporate,” she said mid-show. “I like to keep my shit real and ‘hood.” She also told the crowd at least three times to put their phones down — in a surprisingly friendly and un-scoldy way — and just rock to the music, and surprisingly a large number of people did. She seemed to be enjoying herself so much that she said a couple of times, “I was only supposed to play 15 minutes, but f— it. Sorry Julie!” she said to Atlantic chairman/COO Julie Greenwald.
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It was as exciting and energetic a concert as we’ve seen in years – and according to Greenwald, Elliott has no current plans to tour and work continues on her first album in more than 10 years. A show like this in theaters would blow people’s heads off — hopefully she won’t keep it from the world for much longer.
