Missy Elliott and Doja Cat, two galactic orbits in their own right, merged for a cover story piece in Interview Magazine celebrating the release of Doja Cat’s Planet Her. Discourse between the music stars revealed some pretty interesting tidbits of information that some fans may have not realized until now.
For one, Missy shared that despite its metaphoric rise on the music charts as it immersed the culture, her hit song “Work It” only peaked at No. 2 on the charts! The interview also revealed that Doja Cat is a self-proclaimed “hermit” who prefers to be in the house instead of schmoozing at the networking shindigs in Hollywood. Apparently, Missy feels the same way, choosing to walk her dogs or mop the floor before going out to party.
Doja even admitted that she feels she could do better in the rap department, especially considering the many talented artists coming up. Her fans seem to have no quells about her ability to fluidly exchange singing pop banter for punchy rap lyrics.
The biggest takeaways were Missy’s heirloom of wise advisements that she so graciously shared with the budding “Say So” artist, along with Doja’s own lesson learned moment. These four gems stood out to the MouthSoap the most:
Despite Their Disbelief, Do What You Are Passionate About
“You have to have people around you who love you, and sometimes it’s not always like that for me. I didn’t always have people around me who loved me, but I was still making music. But they didn’t believe in me. Just keep doing what you want to do and enjoy it. It’s a big question that you asked, but if there’s a simple answer, and maybe it’s underwhelm – ing: Do what you feel in your heart is the best thing to do. If you love music, embrace that, and don’t let anybody ever tear you away from how passionately you feel about music. Also, believe in your fans. Show them that you appreciate them. The dark side of it is, don’t trust everybody.”
-DOJA CAT
There’s Nothing New Under The Sun, But The Mimic Is Cheap
“For my first album, I didn’t listen to the radio. I didn’t watch videos. I didn’t do any of those things, and I didn’t realize how much that helped me at the time. But it helped, because me and Timb’, we didn’t mimic. So if we did something far-left, we weren’t afraid, because we didn’t know what was hot anyway.”
-MISSY ELLIOTT
Find Your Own Lane
“Sometimes you gotta take a chance. I never felt like I fit in, period. I don’t think there was a lane for the music that we did. The only reason they found a lane is because I was rapping over the tracks. But at first, I don’t think people understood the music. You’re starting to create your own lane. It probably won’t ever fit, but people will love it.”
“Whatever you’re doing, if you feel like you’re in this place, and it seems to be working, stay there. Don’t allow other things to make you second-guess yourself, as long as it feels good to you.”
-MISSY ELLIOTT
Play The Safety When It’s Time To Post
“When I was coming up we didn’t have social media, so we could turn off the artistry when we finished our interviews and went home. Now you have to be in artist mode at all times, because you gotta watch what you post. If somebody seems crazy to you, you can’t lash out at them. The bigger you get, the more you have to be aware.”
-MISSY ELLIOTT
Check out the full interview HERE.
Cover Story Photo Credit: Eric Johnson / Interview Magazine 2021
