When Missy Elliott becomes the first female hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Friday night, there will be a very special person in the audience seeing her get her freak on for the first time ever.
“My mother has never been to any of my performances ever in life — and she’s coming,” Elliott, 52, told The Post.
“[It’s] only because of me, though. I always be like, ‘I don’t want to be sexual in front of my mother.’ She’s a church lady. I don’t want to do, like, ‘One Minute Man’ in front of her. I would be too nervous.”
But for Friday night’s ceremony — which will stream live on Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET — Elliott is finally ready to make an exception: “I’m like, ‘Mama, just come on — you just gon’ have to close your ears!’ ”
The rapper, singer, songwriter and producer credits Patricia Elliott for instilling fierce fortitude as a single mother in her daughter to become a female boss in the traditionally male-dominated world of hip-hop.
“I attribute so much to her because she’s been so strong,” says the Portsmouth, Virginia native. “She went through a lot, and I went through a lot with her.
“And she was just the epitome of a soldier — and she’s still like that. Anybody that knows my mother knows that my mama don’t play about me.”
Elliott is certainly doing Mama proud by getting inducted into the Rock & Roll of Hall of Fame in the Performer Category alongside Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, the Spinners and the late George Michael.
“When they tell you you’re nominated, you see a long list of people,” she says. “What are your chances? Because you’re looking at the list, and these people are people that you have looked up to, and they have been around longer than you have. So you’re like, ‘Aw man, why they do that?’ ”
But Elliott made the final cut on her very first nomination. “When you hear those stories of people who have been up so many times and still haven’t gotten in … it’s just a blessing,” she says.
When Elliott looks back on other career highlights since she made her groundbreaking debut with 1997’s “Supa Dupa Fly,” the 2015 Super Bowl is right at the top of the list. Her performance as Katy Perry’s special guest was a triumphant comeback after being diagnosed with Graves’ disease in 2008.
“I was in a place of second-guessing [myself] maybe … because mentally I was dealing with things,” she says. “And I got so much love at a time that I felt like I needed it the most.”
Now the “Work It” rapper will be standing on the shoulders of the female MCs who inspired her — including Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shanté and MC Lyte — in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“Those girls impacted my life and made me want to get in this industry and do what they do because I just was like, ‘Wow, they’re amazing,’ ” says Elliott.
“A house could not stand without the foundation. Every last one of those bricks is a layer one of those girls has placed down so the house could stand.”
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