Tonight, Melissa “Missy” Elliott receives the Amazon Music Visionary Icon Award at this year’s Culture Creators brunch. Before the honor, let’s take a look back at how the rapper from Virginia became one of music’s most groundbreaking and influential legends.
Nearly three decades ago, Missy—or Misdemeanor—arrived on the music scene as a solo artist with what is still considered one of the greatest lead singles in hip-hop history.
“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, released in May 1997, was not only an auditory miracle; thanks to the artistry of Missy and her longtime collaborator Timbaland, it was also a riot. In an industry that has long suffered from both colorist ideals and fatphobia, Missy’s declaration that she was “supa, dupa fly” while in a body often relegated to being behind the scenes was both political and necessary. The visuals for the track opened the door to Missy recreating what female emcees were capable of in videos. They could be sexy, entertaining, funny and cool all at once. Missy’s “trash bag couture” with finger waves and moody deep purple lipstick remains one of the most iconic looks in music video history.
Although “The Rain” showed the world that Missy was more than enough to stand on her own as an artist, she had already mastered making people move by writing some of the most popular R&B songs of the early ’90s. Her work with the late great Aaliyah in the 1996s One in a million etched her sound into the fabric of the genre, while her vivid storytelling and ability to make music out of black women’s experiences, hurt and pain made Missy the pen of choice for artists such as Total, SWV and Destiny’s Child.
“At the time I had done some (prominent) features and Sylvia Rhone (then CEO of Elektra Records) said ‘We’ll give you a record label if you give us an album,'” Missy told Variety in 2021. “So I went to Tim and said, ‘Let’s hurry up and make this album so they can give me my record label,’ and we were done with a record label in two ‘weeks!’
Under her Goldmind Label imprint, Missy continued to prove that she was a visionary not only for her own art, but also for artists who wanted to make a hit that would put them on the charts. Within the five years she released her freshman, sophomore-1999’s The real world –and junior 2001s Miss E..So addictivealbums, the Virginia native also managed to write and produce a dozen hits for others, including the remake of Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” which hit number one on the Billboard charts in 2001.
Missy continued her solo brilliance Then the real world and Miss E…mixing new sounds and building a fresh soundscape with each new track. She tackled topics like sexuality, heartbreak, independence and feminism with expert precision as she continued to push the boundaries of what hip-hop could do. Songs like “All In My Grill” and “She’s a B***” gave new meaning to female empowerment, while “One Minute Man” and “Get Ur Freak On” further proved that she could never be boxed in, the latter earning her a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.
“Ms Elliott is one of the true geniuses of the form,” said The Economist of Missy in 2023. “She is to rap what Prince was to R’n’B, both in terms of her influence on the genre and her ability to weave styles and threads outside of it.”
Upon the release of her fourth studio album in 2002, Under construction, Missy had cemented herself as one of the greatest visual storytellers in the business, but she was just getting started.
The lead single from the album, “Work It,” would send Missy mania into overdrive. The song debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, and its accompanying visuals earned her an MTV Video Music Award honor for “Video of the Year.” The massive popularity of “Work It” may have endeared her to a larger audience, but hip-hop had already caught on to what Missy was laying down.
Her flow, musicality and lyricism, combined with raw vocals, a penchant for a ridiculously catchy hook and an ear for finding fresh ways to approach sampling, helped Missy reach vanguard levels at the midway mark of the new millennium. She led the pack for female rappers in record sales with 8 million worldwide and earned Grammy nominations for both Album of the Year and Best Rap Album. Her video for “Gossip Folks”, the second single from Under construction, broke viewership records on MTV, MTV2 and BET.
While much of hip-hop followed the blueprint of ’90s luxury rap culture, Missy gave artists permission to push the envelope in the booth and in front of the camera.
“That was my favorite rapper and that’s why I made so many sounds,” Lil Wayne said of Missy’s influence on his previous records. “So the ‘Block Burner’ song was my top favorite song because my favorite artist was Missy Elliott.”
Although the iconic artist would later lament the pressure she felt to release her 2004 album, This is a test!the project was still certified platinum, and rejected dance cuts like “Pass That Dutch” and “I’m Really Hot.” That same year, she helped newcomer Ciara continue her chart dominance by appearing on “1,2 Step”, the second single from her debut album Treats. The track would earn them a Grammy nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
After the success of the 2005s cookbook, an album that saw her stray from her usual collaborators in search of a new sound, and the meteoric performance of her lead single “Lose Control,” including a Grammy for Best Short Form Video, saw Missy take a well-deserved break from being one of the biggest rap acts in music. However, she did not leave the studio. Instead, she turned back to her writing and production talents to help other women find chart dominance.
And she did it in true Missy fashion. From 2005 to 2010, she released epic singles including Keyshia Cole’s “Let It Go,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Need U Bad,” Fantasia’s “Free Yourself,” and Monica’s “Everything To Me,” all of which were nominated for Grammys after reaching the top of the Billboard charts. Although she never reaches the milestone herself, Missy has the Midas touch to help other women reach No. 1, with many of them crediting her ability to be more than just a producer, but also a sister.
“Missy is one of the biggest producers of our time, but to me she’s a sister first. I learned everything I needed to learn working with her,” Monica Fader shared in 2016. “When me and Missy work on music, we don’t look at times, clocks and who said we have to be in a certain place. We did things on our own terms and what made it happen on our own terms and what made that it happened. controlled it, but us and our true feelings.”
In 2015, Missy’s star power was broadcast to the world when she took to the Super Bowl XLIX stage to perform a medley of her greatest hits as a special guest with Katy Perry. A new generation of music lovers experienced Missy’s genius and kept coming back for more, as the performance quickly became the most-watched halftime event in league history at the time, bringing in 118.5 million views.
The record would continue for years to come, with Missy becoming the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019, while also achieving the same feat at the MTV Video Music Awards, taking home Michael Jackson Vanguard honors. Two years later, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ahead of her hometown’s unveiling of Missy Elliott Blvd. And in 2023, she became the first female rapper (and only the third rap artist in history) to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Today, Missy’s influence can be seen in every artist daring to define themselves on their own terms, but especially in female rappers who have made the industry bend to their will. From the sexually liberated Cardi B and Yung Miami to the daring and daring lyricism of Doja Cats and Megan Thee Stallion, Missy’s genius permeates through the music.
“A lot of your s*** was huge for me,” Doja Cat told Missy in a sit-down for Interview Magasinet. “When I was little, I stood in front of my TV every single day and danced to your videos. I thought, ‘This is my Beyoncé’.”
When it comes to Missy Elliott, no matter how you flip it or reverse it, in every lane, she is a living legend.
