One fan of Missy Elliott has made waves on the internet, having created a Change.org petition that has gained more than 28,000 signatures in less than a week.
The reason? Nathan Coflin wants the city of Portsmouth, Virginia, to replace a Confederate monument with a statue of Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott.
The Washington Post reported that Coflin, a resident of Elliott's hometown of Portsmouth, is a longtime fan of Elliott.
“I wanna show we can honor the positivity that’s happening today in Portsmouth and I think no one better suits that than Missy Elliott,” he told The Post.
“We believe it is time to finally replace the Confederate Monument in Olde Towne Portsmouth Virginia near the intersection of Court and High streets with a new statue of a true Portsmouth native hero,” Coflin wrote on the petition. “Who better to encapsulate the culture and spirit of the city enshrined in a new monument than Grammy Award winning rapper, dancer, and record producer Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott?”
Making nods to Elliott’s 2002 single “Work It,” Coflin expressed his reasons for replacing the monument.
“Getting this statue put up will be a lot of work and you may ask yourself is it worth it? I say yes and ask you to join me in letting us work it,” he wrote. “Together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it. Let us come together in getting City Council to erect this statue in honor of Missy Elliott and all those in the great City of Portsmouth who work it each and every day.”
In response to a tweet about the petition, Elliott said "just to see this warms my heart and it's so humbling to me."
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