For Colored Girls (The Missy Elliott Poem)

"A brief history of womanhood in hip hop" or,
"Your favorite could never" or,
"For colored girls who don’t need Katy Perry when Missy Elliott is enough"

Third grade.
I’m in the hallway, when I’m sure I shouldn’t have been,
And Cory White comes up to me and asks
“Yo! Have you heard that new Missy Elliott track ?”
I reply “Who is Missy Elliott !?”

At the time, my parents only let me listen to the gospel
and the Smooth jazz station.
But that day… I went home, ran upstairs to my room,
Closed the door (a cardinal sin in a black mother’s house),
And waited on TRL to come on.

And then it happened.
Metallics and a black trash bag fill my TV screen.
And I hear the coolest thing I’d ever heard in 8 years of living :
"Beep beep, who got the keys to the jeep… Vroom!"
And at that moment I had my life figured out :
I was going to grow up to be Missy Elliott.

I spent the next ten years of my life recording and rewinding videos to learn dance moves,
Passing that dutch, getting my freak on,
And trying to figure out what the hell she was saying in Work It.

There were so many artists I could have idolized at the time,
But Missy was the only one who looked like me.
It is because of Melissa Elliott,
That I believed that a fat black girl from Chicago,
Could dance until she felt pretty,
Could be sexy and cool,
Could be a woman playing a man’s game,
And not be apologetic about any of it.

If you ask me, why representation in the media is important,
I will show you the tweet of a teenager,
Asking who this “new” artist is Katy Perry brought out for the SuperBowl.
I will show you my velour Adidas sweat suit and white fur Kangol I begged my parents for.
I will show you a 26-year-old woman who learned how to dance until she felt pretty.

Feminism wears a throwback jersey, bamboo earrings, and a face beat for the gods.
Feminism is Da Brat, Missy Elliott, Lil Kim, and Angie Martinez, on the “Not Tonight” track.
Feminism says as a woman in my arena you are not my competition,
As a woman, in my arena your light doesn’t make mine any dimmer.

Dear Missy,
I did not grow up to be you,
But I did grow up to be me,
And to be in love with who this woman is,
To be a woman playing a man’s game,
And not be apologetic about any of it.
If you ask me why representation is important,
I will tell you that on the days I don’t feel pretty,
I hear the sweet voice of Missy singing to me :
"Pop that pop that, jiggle that fat,
Don’t stop, get it 'til your clothes get wet".
I will tell you that right now there are a million
Black girls just waiting to see someone who looks like : them !