Missy Elliott is defending Flyana Boss, an up-and-coming hip-hop duo who've blown on the back of their viral single "You Wish."
Flyana Boss, which consists of best friends Bobbi Lanea from Detroit and Folayan Kunerede from Dallas, has gained steam on TikTok by dropping several lyric videos for "You Wish." Flyana's creativity has been scrunitized by some fans on Twitter, who've criticized the duo for releasing the same video multiple times.
On Friday, one Flyana Boss fan asked Twitter, "I promise I’m not hating, I’m legit asking; how many times they gon do the same thing in different videos for this song?"
The tweet received a response from none other than Missy Elliott, who defended Flyana Boss' artistic decisions by shedding light on how she experienced similar criticism when breaking out in the late-1990s.
"This old school tactic if you do a bunch of things you confuse the audience," Missy explained. "They don’t know who you are That’s why most successful artist have eras and for that era they consistently do the same style and sound so you build a particular fan base."
Missy continued, "Example my 1st album I wore FingerWaves the entire time," she wrote. "My sound was a futuristic vibe even down to the way I danced it was a jerky move. But all the elements established the type of artist I was… you must be consistent when you are a new artist."
Missy's discourse continued with another user asking the legendary rapper if confusing the audience by "doing a bunch of things" pertains to an artist's sound as well. According to Elliott, artists should focus on crafting a signature sound before experimenting with other creative decisions.
"I feel you should create a sound 1st so ppl can attach that sound to the artist and it become your signature," she shared. "Once the consumer know your sound then you can experiment. TeddyRiley he had the new Jack swing sound. Prince always used that flair drum it was his signature."
Missy added, "So it’s like a entire package. That’s why you may see people say this was riri pop era or this was this artist R&B era because for that album they pretty much stay consistent the whole album even down to hair and clothes. Think of the group TLC oversized combat boots era."
Check out Missy's exchange below.
