I don't know. I'm just me, man.
I just like to have fun.
Missy Elliott came in and ushered a whole new sound,
nothing like that was on the radio.
[NowThis' Luria Freeman] Missy Elliott is one of the undisputed queens of rap and R&B,
and the success of her first album, ‘Supa Dupa Fly,’ changed music forever.
She's a rapper, producer, songwriter, singer.
She was doing all those things on her album.
She wrote, produced, sung, and rapped all the songs on her album.
And I think
the legacy of that is just so impactful because she was doing everything.
At the time, like, yeah, there were women into rap,
and of course, there were women singing R&B and in hip-hop.
But to have one woman do all of those things at once,
and not only do it for herself, but for other artists, and
to have somebody step out the box and make these wacky music videos.
And I think a lot of people just love the fact
that she just didn't take herself so seriously.
Should I stay original?
Should I change up?
Oh, it's not working.
Everybody chasing the chart, so I gotta do this.
And no, you be yourself and, and be ok with that.
Released in 1997, Missy Elliott’s debut album was made
in just two weeks with one of her biggest collaborators, Timbaland.
The thing about me and Timbaland together is we both got
cutting-edge minds and we don't like to stay in one particular spot.
We like to keep creating new
sounds for the radio, and we gonna continue to do that.
As time go on, in 2000, 3000, 4000,
we gonna continue to keep making the best music we can.
At the time,
a lot of artists in rap were using samples, like Diddy was using, like,
old-school samples with B.I.G., with classic songs from the '70s and '80s.
And then Missy would use similar samples,
but she and Timbaland, when they were producing
their album, would kind of distort them and add their own flair to it.
And a lot of the sounds and beats weren't just typical
musical instruments.
They would use sounds of, like, babies crying, and, like, the sound of rain,
and just, like, all kinds of different sounds you hear in everyday life,
but moving that into music.
Listening to the album and hearing it start with
a Busta Rhymes intro,
and then ‘Sock It 2 Me,’
then 'Beep Me 911,' and then 'Supa Dupa Fly,' and, like,
those four songs back to back to back, literally the first four songs
you hear on the album, like, that was an incredible four-song run.
And I love how
when you're listening to her music, you'll hear her, like, rap
a couple bars, start singing, and then rap again, and then, like, sing a hook.
And that's what just makes everything so seamless.
In addition, Missy Elliott’s music videos made her stand out and had a huge impact
on culture and fashion in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
I think what is so great about [the music videos] and what people loved
is that they were so futuristic.
Everything kind of had, like, this
almost surrealist kind of look, especially ‘The Rain.’ And the biggest thing
people remember about that video is her in, like, that huge, inflatable
leather suit.
And to me, that was almost, like a way to say, 'This is me.
This is my body. I'm gonna wear this gigantic
leather suit and show you
I can do whatever I want.' And then 'Sock It 2 Me,' they had
those really cool futuristic, 3D spacesuit,
and I just think Hype Williams really elevated it.
She had her own sound, and then if you match the sound
with the music videos Hype Williams was directing, it really made
everything flow so perfectly, and it really showed her vision.
The impact of that was just somebody who was so comfortable in themselves
and being able to step out in the box in a way that people just weren't
doing at that time.
Like, if you look at, you know, the fashion of 1997,
it was very out there, what Missy Elliott was doing.
She was, like, 20 light-years ahead of what's going on now.
Being a woman, a Black woman at that, and then a plus size Black woman,
I can't imagine how incredibly difficult it is
for artists to have any kind of control of their image.
I wanna be able to motivate that generation behind me
because I had people to motivate me. I don't just want it to be about
my music.
I want to be how, how did I help people mentally?
I think women in the industry now,
are in, like, an amazing place,
a much better place than before maybe, like, 25 years ago, when Missy was there.
And I think artists like Missy definitely paved the way for women
to be able to talk about, you know, their bodies, their sexuality,
and kind of own that lane, especially such a male-dominated industry like rap.
No matter what, like, Missy Elliott is always going to be considered one of those greats.
Oh, women most definitely are gonna excel in rap.
I think we are more outspoken now.
A lot of things that we used to be scared to talk about,
we just speaking about it now, and a lot of, lot more women are coming
in, and doing label deals, and being more business-minded
than just coming in trying to, you know, get the fame or whatever.
They're, they're taking their business side very, very seriously.
Like myself.