Sorry for all the disease-related music news today, but Billboard reports that Missy Elliott has been fighting Graves disease—which affects the thyroid and causes weight loss and mood swings—for the past three years. This might explain why Elliott, who hasn’t put out an album since 2005’s The Cookbook, has been silent for the past several years. A record called Block Party has supposedly been in the works—reports of its existence go back to 2008—but it’s been subject to numerous delays.
In an interview with People, Elliott says the disease was so crippling that she “couldn't write because my nervous system was so bad—I couldn't even use a pen." It appears Elliott is on the mend, though the disease has no cure. Meanwhile work on new music with Timbaland apparently continues, which she’ll discuss—along with the disease and the rest of her story—in an upcoming episode of Behind The Music airing Wednesday June 29.