Missy Elliott seems to be one resilient lady. Because not only has she stood the test of time and is still relevant after 22 years in the game, she powered through her performance while sick at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
She also received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award that August 26 night, and she told Power 105.1’s Angie Martinez how she survived it all.
“The day before the show, my chest, I couldn’t breathe,” said Elliott in the interview that was published on Friday. “I had to go to the hospital … They gave me some cough syrup. I was like, ‘Oh, this is not good. They got me on the lean … Give me a Motrin,’ ’cause that thing had me, like, mouth open, looking crazy. ‘Cause my chest and stuff messed up.”
The 48-year-old eventually found out that she had a common cold, but she felt she couldn’t back out of the performance because of all the expenses incurred in setting up her VMA performance.
For Elliott’s stage show, a number of pricey-looking special effects were used. There was also a spaceship that hovered over the stage, and the rapper was seen floating in air with no visible strings or cords attached.
“Just gotta fight it and be like, what Im’a do? Tell MTV after they spent all that bread [I can’t do it],” she stated. “They would have been like you better take this whatever and get out there.”
“I just had a chance to see it last night on the way to the hospital again,” Elliott continued. “I’m just watching it sick. I saw it last night fully through. I was like, ‘Wow.’”
In another part of her interview with Martinez, the “Lose Control” rapper talked about having Graves’ disease for some of her career.
“It happened out of nowhere. I’ve always worked, worked, worked and never stopped,” she explained. “And sometimes your body like, ‘OK, you wildin.’ I remember not being able to write. I couldn’t even lift up a pen, a cup.”
“I remember Monica came to my house one time and was like, ‘OK, just tell me the words and I’ll write it for you.’ It was bad,” Elliott added. “It went on for a minute, for like a year. Then it’s a lot that come with it. But I got a praying family. My family prays. They pray very hard.”
