Missy Elliott is Back with Block Party

America's favorite female emcee, Missy Elliott, will be come back with her seventh studio album, entitled Block Party, which is slated for a September 2008 release. The set will include production credits by Timbaland (a regular), Danja, Swizz Beatz, T-Pain, and others. Missy herself said that the album will contain party tracks, hence the title.

Elliott further mentioned on Entertainment Weekly that she and Timbaland are "always gonna take it as far left as possible without losing people or having them thinking we're on drugs." Well, that's believable considering that they've done a great job together so far.

Elliott's career has already spanned six albums, each one receiving at least one platinum certification. Very impressive. But since her career peak with 2002's double-platinum Under Construction, album sales have seen a sizable dip. Although This Is Not a Test! and The Cookbook were both certified platinum, actual sales are closer to 700,000 than 1,000,000. So, while she still seems to be busting million-selling albums on the surface, Elliott is actually undergoing a slight career slump. But armed with this upcoming party album, things may steam up. So this album holds the potential of being her comeback album.

Back in January 2008, Elliott's official website announced that a new track called "Ching-a-Ling" would be the lead single off Step Up 2 the Streets soundtrack, as well as be included on her upcoming studio album. The single peaked at number 60 on the Hot 100, what would normally be considered somewhat of a disappointment for her. But to be fair, it didn't have the anticipation of a new Missy album coming soon attached to it by her label or her fans. A neat video was filmed for it, which included a clip for another new song called "Shake Your Pom Pom"-also featured on the Step Up 2 the Streets soundtrack. I agree that "Ching-a-Ling" is a decent track, worthy of its pick as a single.

The official pre-album single, however, has recently been announced as "Best Best." It's clearly Missy on her grind, but something seems lacking. The instrumental is fine, but Missy's delivery and lyrics aren't as fresh and engaging as previous singles have been. But I have no doubt that it will at least reach around halfway up the Hot 100.

As far as more album information goes, Keyshia Cole is a definite guest and T-Pain will most likely appear on an album track that he's producing himself.