Missy Elliott moves to the ‘center lane’

Elliott didn’t want anything that sounded like 2003’s “This is Not a Test!” It was the follow-up to her 2002 “Under Construction,” an album that produced hits like the sexually charged “Work It” and ended on many critic’s “best of” lists. It was her biggest seller (2.1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan).

But “This is Not A Test” fell flat with fans and critics alike, and didn’t duplicate the double-platinum sales of “Under Construction.” It was her first album not to go platinum, selling just 690,000 copies.

Elliott says she was under pressure to produce another hit for her former record label, Elektra, which folded into Atlantic Records last year.

“It came out extremely too quickly for me. I didn’t want it to come out when it did,” she says.

So with “The Cookbook,” which boasts collaborations with Mary J. Blige, Slick Rick, Ciara, Fantasia and Mike Jones, Elliott made sure she took the time to get it right.

As she strokes her new “baby,” a Yorkie puppy named Poncho sleeping in her lap, she also cites “different experiences in your life that you want to talk about.”

Among the different experiences for Elliott: her UPN reality show “The Road To Stardom,” a talent competition that showed wannabes the struggles of making it to the top. “I wanted people to see the stages before becoming an artist, like it’s a hard grind,” she says.

Like other rappers, she also has the requisite clothing line, Respect ME, after inking a deal with Adidas.

Personally, she went through issues that she didn’t delve into on the album. One of her biggest was learning who not to trust after getting burned by so-called friends in the past, she says.

“That’s the biggest thing that artists get hurt by, is knowing that their company, and some of the closest ones up under them are the ones that should be watched out for,” she says. “I’ve had a couple of those.”

Most Elliott songs don’t talk much about painful emotional issues. That changes a bit on “My Struggles,” in which she briefly touches on the domestic abuse she witnessed as a child.

“I talked about my father being abusive to my mother — people have never heard me talk about anything like that. That brings people a little bit more personal with Missy,” says the notoriously private entertainer, who typically eschews interviews and chats little about her life outside the limelight.

With this album, Elliott seems to be a little more willing to let the public into her world.

“I want to be on the cover of Us Weekly!” she says with a laugh.

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