Missy Elliott’s first studio collection in 14 years is an underwhelming EP called “Iconology”: only four new songs plus the a cappella vocals for one of them, the doo-wop-style “Why I Still Love You.” Yes, she was an icon — a remarkable, incontestable groundbreaker — in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. She wrote hits (particularly for Aaliyah), rapped, produced, sang, danced and claimed a place for hardheaded talent.

But on “Iconology,” her assurance is flecked with anxiety. The video for “Throw It Back” begins with a museum scene featuring a young girl who never heard of Elliott. And a big part of Elliott’s rap on “Throw It Back” is her résumé: “I did records for Tweet before you could even tweet,” she reminds us. Her delivery — surrounded, in the video, by dancers in bright matching-colored outfits — is pure deadpan confidence: “What you’re doing now, I did for a while,” she notes, adding, “Don’t look for another Missy ’cause there’ll be no other one.” But the production, by Elliott with her longtime collaborator Timbaland and Will Hendrix, is also a throwback: just a three-note synthesizer bass line and vintage drum-machine sounds. Elliott deserves to be acknowledged, but hip-hop moves a long way over a decade-plus. “Iconology” doesn’t prove that the icon is still innovating. JON PARELES