Missy Elliot: Ms. Supa Dupa Fly

With Missy Elliott’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame coming in June this year, making her the first female rapper with this prestigious honor; the first male rapper being Jay-Z in 2017. With this being set in stone, It’s pretty hard to denounce her career that spans over 25 years, which that in itself is admirable. But of course, like many success stories, it doesn’t always start off with the money, recognition, and fame. There is the come up phase, Missy Misdemeanor, before having her breakout moment in 96 with her verse on Gina Thompsons “The Things You Do” & her debut album “Supa Dupa Fly” in 1997, got her first taste of the music business being apart of her R&B group, Sista, in the late 80s and early 90s. Signing to Elektra Records and joining a collective called Swing Mob (which included Ginuwine and Tweet who would become frequent collaborators and friends with Missy) in 1991. But unfortunately for Sista, things didn’t go according to their vision, as they only released one single “Brand New” and had their album “4 All the Sistas Around da World” which was supposed to see a released in 1994, but it was shelved due to that one single doing poorly and not doing much on the charts. While in 93, she wrote and did a verse for a young Raven- Symone single “That’s What Little Girls Are Made Of”. Then, Missy had a revelation of how shady the business can be when she discovered that they shot the video for the song without giving her any notice and invite, in addition, they shot the video having a model lip-sync her verse. Confronting everyone involved in the video, she was told that she “didn’t quite fit the image that we were looking for” for the video. But after splitting from Swing Mob in 1995, she began her rise to stardom (alongside her pals Timbaland, Magoo, Ginuwine, and Tweet).

Continuing her career as a songwriter she went on to write songs for Aaliyah such as: One in a Million, Hot Like Fire, If You’re Girl Only Knew; and brought her production skills to others by producing/co-producing songs such as the Grammy Award Winning cover version of 2001s “Lady Marmalade” by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink. Throughout her discography, she has garnered 5 platinum albums and 1 gold album, and several hit records including Work It, Get Ur Freak On, and Lose Control; Missy Elliott isn’t a tourist in NYC to the Billboard Charts, to say the least. With her unique style of merging hip-hop and R&B together, she and alongside her friend Timbaland help shaped the landscape of hip-hop and R&B of today. Here’s what Missy said regarding her debut album from her VH1 Behind the Music special: “I thought I had something that was unique. I wanted to breakdown all barrier and wanted to be a risk taker” (For the record, she can sing very well and lovely too). Lyrically she was no Lauryn Hill, but, that does not discredit her. Missy was a fun, witty, and some would say… she had “onomatopoeia raps” where she would have many lines in her verse finished with a sound effect of some sort (listen to “Get Ur Freak On” or “Work It” one more time with fresh ears with that thought now) and the overall package of music she was made very satisfying, to say the least. But what made Missy Elliot important for hip hop, in general, was her plus size body type and her unique and off-the-wall videos. While most women rappers before Missy, the majority of them fit the status quo of what a woman “should appear” and sell somewhat of a sex appeal to the male audience (not to discredit them). But Missy embraced herself plus size body (that almost prevented her from having a music career from the jump) and used her time to show that women in hip hop can be more than something to look at and do what they want to do while being talented (while also providing sexual lyrics too); by dressing in the most outlandish, cartoon-ish stylistic and innovative outfits (the garbage-bag suit…..that’s all to point out) and out of the ordinary, wacky videos with directed by such people as legendary hip hop video director Hype Williams. Unique videos paving ways for artists like Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, and more. Garnering the idea that she needs an MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award” which is a piece within itself but digression is happening.

A piece on Missy from 2016 by Dazed Magazine brought up an interesting point to credit her; she has given co-signs to many upcoming female artists such as Ciara and supported all female artists around her, and presented unity (in a industry that puts them up against each other) between female artists by doing plenty of collaborations with many including: “Ladies Night (Remix)” with Lil’ Kim, Da Brat, Left Eye, & Angie Martinez; “Let It Go” with Keyshia Cole and Lil’ Kim, from working with Total to working with the Pussycat Dolls, the list goes on. Innovative, iconic, and influential, all that being said; has it finally reached it’s a point to where which she can be considered the greatest female hip hop artist of all time?

When it comes to the best female rapper of all time, Lauryn Hill is usually someone’s answer, which I wouldn’t blame them if they did. While her career and impact are undeniable and this should not take away from Lauryn’s talent and legacy, but over the years it’s becoming questionable if she’s truly deserving of the “the best female hip-hop artist” title. Beginning with several lawsuits and scandals surrounding debut her album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” which is the album that catapulted her to superstardom and made her the “Queen of Rap”, (No disrespect to Lil Kim, she’s still the “Queen B”), over songwriting credits and music written for the album. Overall, in her catalog she didn’t release much music from herself, in total she has 3 official studio projects to her name; those being 2 Fugees albums(1994 “Blunted on Reality” and 1996 “The Score”) and her 1 solo album, sure she had released a few singles here and there and reunited with the Fugees in 05 for the Dave Chappelle Block Party festival/documentary and for reunion tour (which didn’t last long due to tension from the past being brought back among everyone in the group), but overall she wasn’t very consistent with her catalog and more so very choppy when it came to her music career. When it comes to her live performances, that doesn’t help her case either. Over the last few years she has been known for her either average live performances, most likely due to the fact that she can’t play and use her music from Miseducation due to legal reasons (possibly not owning the rights to the music anymore but that has never confirmed to be true or false) so she has to do acoustic and different versions than the originals of her music. Sometimes she’s either late or doesn’t even show up and cancel her shows/reschedules them. While Ms. Hill is talented and then some, it seems hard to give some the title of best female hip hop artist when overall. If Ms. Hill isn’t the GOAT, then Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott is a definite contender sitting on that throne, in fact, Missy herself in 2016 interview said it best: “Before Missy……there was no missy or anyone in comparison doing what Missy was doing”