Hip Hop Scriptures

Missy Elliott Digital Biography

Quotes

"I always feel the need to work as if I don't have a deal, because that's what's going to keep me around for a long time."– Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on July 1, 1971. Elliott worked as a songwriter and producer before getting her own record label. Her inventive style and ability to transcend hip-hop's ideas about women gave her five platinum albums in a row—including her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly—and numerous honors, including five Grammy Awards. With success as a performer, songwriter and producer, Elliott became hip-hop's first female mogul.

Early Life

Missy Elliott was born Melissa Arnette Elliott on July 1, 1971, in Portsmouth, Virginia. As a child, she would often sing for her family and neighbors. Even at a young age, Elliott knew she that wanted to be a star.

Elliott's childhood was marked by trauma. When she was eight, she was raped on a regular basis by a 16-year-old cousin. The sexual abuse lasted for a year, until a relative discovered what was happening. She also witnessed her father's almost daily beatings of her mother. The situation had Elliott sending pleas for help to stars like Michael and Janet Jackson. Finally, when she was a teenager, Elliott and her mother left her father.
Success in Hip-Hop

Free from worries about her mother's safety, Elliott was able to fully focus on music and performing. She formed a group, Sista, that was signed to Swing Mob Records in 1991. Unfortunately, financial problems meant that Sista's album was not released. After the group split up, Elliott and her friend Timbaland started writing and producing songs, including hits for their friend Aaliyah.

Although her appearance didn't match ideas about female beauty in the male-centric world of hip-hop, Elliott got the chance to form her own label, The Goldmind, Inc., at Elektra Records. Her first album, Supa Dupa Fly (1997), went platinum and earned Elliott the designation of rap artist of the year from Rolling Stone. Her next two albums also went platinum. Elliott's 2002 album, Under Construction, set sales records for a female-headed rap album, selling 2.1 million copies in the United States.

Elliott won two Grammy Awards in 2002, one of which was for her song "Get Ur Freak On." She went on to win Grammys for the songs "Scream a.k.a. Itchin'" and "Work It." Her music video for "Lose Control" also won a Grammy Award. Along with her Grammys, Elliott has received American Music Awards, multiple BET Awards for best female hip-hop artist and several MTV Video Awards for her inventive, eye-catching music videos.
Personal Life

Though the hard-working Elliott has occasionally put her personal life aside in order to focus on work, she takes time to enjoy the jewelry, cars and homes her success has given her. She remains close with her mother and her family.

Elliott grew up in the Baptist faith, and has stated that faith will always be a large part of her life. She explained in 2003 that her faith helped her cope with her abuse, saying, "You have to find some kind of peace.

I believe in a higher being, and that gives me faith to be strong and go on."

Elliott has also had to deal with Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid. With a doctor's help, she learned to manage the condition through diet and exercise.

Elliott's phenomenal success in hip-hop led to her appearing on TV, in ad campaigns and in films, but music is still her focus. Recently, Elliott added Little Mix to the diverse list of artists she has worked with--a list that includes Christina Aguilera, Eminem, Mick Jagger and Whitney Houston--when she performed guest vocals for the group's 2013 release "How Ya Doin'."

After being dismissed for her appearance at the start of her career, Elliott ended up carving her own path to success. An entrepreneur and visionary, Elliott's skills in writing, producing and performing helped her become hip-hop's first female mogul and a hip-hop icon.

1996–1998: Supa Dupa Fly

After leaving Swing Mob, Elliott and Timbaland worked together as a songwriting/production team, crafting tracks for acts including SWV, 702, and most notably Aaliyah. The pair wrote and produced nine tracks for Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million (1996), among them the hit singles "If Your Girl Only Knew", "One in a Million", "Hot Like Fire", and "4 Page Letter". Elliott contributed background vocals and/or guest raps to nearly all of the tracks on which she and Timbaland worked. One in a Million went double platinum and made stars out of the production duo. Elliott and Timbaland continued to work together for other artists, later creating hits for artists such as Total; "What About Us?" (1997), Nicole Wray; "Make It Hot" (1998), and Destiny's Child; "Get on the Bus" (1998), as well as one final hit for Aaliyah, "I Care 4 U", before her death in 2001. Elliott also wrote the bulk of Total's second and final album Kima, Keisha, and Pam and Nicole Wray's debut Make It Hot (both released in 1998). Elliott began her career as a featured vocalist rapping on Sean "Puffy" Combs's Bad Boy remixes to Gina Thompson's "The Things That You Do", (which had a video featuring cameo appearances by Notorious B.I.G and Puff Daddy), MC Lyte's 1996 hit single "Cold Rock a Party" (backup vocals by Gina Thompson), and New Edition's 1996 single "You Don't Have to Worry". In 1996, Elliott also appeared on the Men of Vizion's remix of "Do Thangz" which was produced by Rodney Jerkins (coincidentally the producer of the original version of "The Things That You Do").

Combs had hoped to sign Elliott to his Bad Boy record label. Instead, she signed a deal in 1996 to create her own imprint, The Goldmind Inc., with East West Records, which at that time was a division of Elektra Entertainment Group, for which she would record as a solo artist. Timbaland was again recruited as her production partner, a role he would hold on most of Elliott's solo releases. Missy continued to work with other artists and appeared on LSG's song "All the Time" with Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, Faith Evans, and Coko in 1997 on Levert Sweat Gill classic album. The same year, she rapped in "Keys To My House" with old friends group LeVert. In the center of a busy period of making guest appearances and writing for other artists, Elliott's debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, was released in mid-1997; the success of its lead single "The Rain" led the album to be certified platinum. Elliott wore an oversized trash-bag looking jumpsuit in the music video, and at Lilith Fair, an outfit media articles have considered one of her most recognizible "fashion moments".

The success was also a result of the music videos of her single releases, which were directed by Harold "Hype" Williams, who created many groundbreaking hip hop, Afro-futuristic videos at the time. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards, but lost to Puff Daddy's No Way Out. The year also saw Elliott perform live at the MTV Video Music Awards show on a remix to Lil' Kim's "Ladies Night" with fellow rappers Da Brat, Angie Martinez and TLC-rapper Left Eye. Elliott continued her successful career in the background as a producer and writer on Total's single "Trippin'", as well as working with several others in the hip-hop and R&B communities. Elliott co-wrote and co-produced two tracks on Whitney Houston's 1998 album My Love Is Your Love, providing vocal cameos for "In My Business" and "Oh Yes". Elliott also produced and made a guest appearance on Spice Girl Melanie Brown's debut solo single, "I Want You Back", which topped the UK Singles Chart in Brown's native United Kingdom and is Elliot's only chart-topping song in that country.

1999–2001: Da Real World and Miss E… So Addictive

Although a much darker album than her debut, Elliott's second album was just as successful as the first, selling 1.5 million copies and 3 million copies worldwide. She remarked, "I can't even explain the pressure. The last album took me a week to record. This one took almost two months…I couldn't rush it the second time because people expect more." Da Real World (1999) included the singles "All n My Grill", a collaboration with Nicole Wray and Big Boi (from OutKast), a remix to "Hot Boyz" and "She's a Bitch". Also in 1999, Elliott was featured, alongside Da Brat, on the official remix to a Mariah Carey single "Heartbreaker". A music video was filmed for the remix, shot in black and white and featuring a cameo appearance by Dogg. The Desert Storm Remix is acclaimed by music critics and became a cult remix .

Missy Elliott next released Miss E... So Addictive on May 15, 2001. The album debuted at number two in the United States and sold 250,000 copies in its first week. It spawned the massive pop and urban hits "One Minute Man" (as to which MTV wrote: "Missy Elliott Plays Dr. Ruth On New Single"), featuring Ludacris and Trina, and "Get Ur Freak On", as well as the international club hit "4 My People" and the less commercially successful single "Take Away". The double music video for "Take Away/4 My People" was released in the fall of 2001, shortly after the sudden death of Elliott's close friend Aaliyah on August 25 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The "Take Away" video contained images of and words about Aaliyah, and the slow ballad acted as a tribute to her memory. The remainder of the video was the more upbeat "4 My People", contained scenes of people dancing happily in front of American flags and Elliott dressed in red, white and blue. Though "Take Away" was not a success on radio, "4 My People" went on to become an American and European club hit due to a popular remix by house music duo Basement Jaxx in 2002.

Tweet's appearance on Elliott's "Take Away" as well as her cameo at Elliott's house on MTV Cribs helped to create a buzz about the new R&B singer. Tweet's own debut single, "Oops (Oh My)", was co-written by Elliott and released through Goldmind in February 2002. The single was a top ten hit, thanks partially to Elliott's songwriting and guest rap, and to Timbaland's unusual production on the track. Elliott co-produced the Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink cover of "Lady Marmalade" for the album Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film,[39] which went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001.

2002–2004: Under Construction and This Is Not a Test!

For her next outing, Elliott and Timbaland focused on an old school sound, utilizing many old school rap and funk samples, such as Run–D.M.C.'s "Peter Piper" and Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus". Elliott's fourth album, 2002's Under Construction (see 2002 in music) is known as the best selling female rap album with 2.1 million copies sold in the United States. In 2002, Elliott won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for "Get Ur Freak On". In 2003, Under Construction received Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Album of the Year. The New York Times designated Under Construction "this year's best hip-hop album". Elliott released two singles off of Under Construction. The lead single, "Work It" reached No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and won the "Video of the Year" award at MTV's Video Music Awards. The second single, "Gossip Folks" featuring Ludacris, became a Top 10 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, was one of the most-played music videos on MTV, MTV2, MTV Jams, and BET in 2003 and was embraced by the dance community, as well as the mainstream, due to a Fatboy Slim remix. A third single was never released, though a video was shot for "Back In The Day" featuring Jay-Z and Elliott was.

In between albums, Elliott produced the "American Dream Remix" (featuring Tweet's additional vocals) of Madonna's single "American Life", was featured rapper on Timbaland & Magoo's return single, "Cop That Shit", and produced "Fighting Temptation" (featuring herself, Beyoncé, Free and MC Lyte) for the soundtrack to the Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles movie of the same name. The track reached No. 1 in Japan but failed to chart in the U.S. Hot 100. Elliott was also featured on Wyclef Jean's "Party to Damascus" and Ghostface Killah's "Tush" singles, the latter of which became a minor 2004 dance hit, and had a pivotal role in the film Honey. Gap approached Elliott later in the year to co-star in a commercial with Madonna, which received much media attention. Elliott furthered her relationship with Madonna by performing the controversial 2003 MTV Video Music Awards show opening alongside Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Also in September 2003, Elliott performed the theme song "The Opposite Sex" for the UPN sitcom Eve starring her good friend and fellow rapper Eve. It lasted for three seasons.

A year after Elliott's most successful album to date was released, Elliott felt pressured by her label to release another album hoping to capitalize on her recent success. Elliott's singles, "Pass That Dutch" and "I'm Really Hot", from her fifth album, This Is Not a Test! (released November 2003), both rose the urban charts. However, both were not as successful at pop radio in comparison to many of her previous efforts. This Is Not A Test sold 690,000 copies in the United States and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Elliott has since stated that "the album This Is Not A Test came out extremely too quickly for me. I didn't want it to come out when it did." In 2004, Elliott was featured on Ciara's hit single "1, 2 Step", with her verse interpolating Teena Marie's single, "Square Biz". Elliott premiered her own reality show on the UPN Network, The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott in 2005 even though it was not renewed for a second season. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, she sold more than 7.6 million copies in the United States, being the female rapper with best-selling albums in the country, followed by Lauryn Hill (seven million), Lil' Kim (four million), and Eve (four million) at the time.

2005–2006: The Cookbook and Respect M.E.

Elliott wanted to "give people the unexpected" by utilizing producers other than Timbaland and a "more to the center" sound not as far left as her other music. Her sixth solo album, The Cookbook was released on July 4, 2005, debuted at number two on the U.S. charts and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling 645,000 copies in the United States. Elliott's work during The Cookbook era was heavily recognized. Elliott received 5 Grammy nominations in 2005, including one for Best Rap Album for The Cookbook. The album's first single, "Lose Control", won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video and was nominated for Best Rap Song. "Lose Control" also garnered Elliott six 2005 MTV VMA award nominations (winning Best Dance Video and Best Hip-Hop Video). Elliott won Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the 2005 American Music Awards, and was nominated for Best International Female Artist at the 2006 BRIT Awards.

"Lose Control" featuring Ciara and Fatman Scoop, became a Top 5 hit in the midyear (peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100). The second single, Teary Eyed, did not chart, although the video charted on MTV's TRL for a few weeks, and BET's 106 & Park for a few days. The third single, "We Run This", was released with heavy airplay on VH1, MTV, and BET. It served as the lead single for the soundtrack to the gymnastics-themed film Stick It. The song was also nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Rap Solo Performance category in 2006. Respect M.E., Elliott's first greatest hits album, was released outside the United States and Canada on September 4, 2006, only in South Africa, Australia, Europe, Japan, and Brazil. The collection became her second top ten album in the UK and her highest-charting album to date, peaking at number seven there.

2007–2014: Production work

Elliott was an honoree of the 2007 VH1 Hip Hop Honors. In honor of her career, many artists performed some of her biggest hits. Timbaland and Tweet performed "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", Eve and Keyshia Cole performed "Hot Boyz" and "Work It", Fatman Scoop and Ciara performed "Lose Control", and Nelly Furtado performed "Get Ur Freak On (The Remix)". Since 2007, Elliott's seventh studio album has had several different forms with extensive delays. In 2007, she worked with Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Danja, T-Pain and DJ Toomp and planned to release an album at the beginning of 2008. In January 2008, "Ching-a-Ling" was released as the lead single for the Step Up 2: The Streets soundtrack, which also featured "Shake Your Pom Pom" produced by Timbaland. Elliott released the song "Best, Best" in the same year and renamed the albums previous title FANomenal to its current tentative title Block Party. She later decided against Block Party and four years later, in 2012, Elliott released two Timbaland-produced singles ("9th Inning" and "Triple Threat") exclusively to iTunes. Though the songs managed to chart on Billboard Hot Digital Songs, in an interview with Yahoo's The Yo Show, Missy talked about her hiatus from making records: "Your brain needs time to refresh! Things happen in your life where you can then write something else instead of the same three topics. Like, how many times we gonna talk about the club? I gotta feel like what I'm giving the fans is 100 percent and that it's game-changing. I don't just throw out microwave records."

In between the recording of her seventh album, Missy Elliott found success behind the scenes. Elliott's writing and production helped her reach No. 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with Keyshia Cole's "Let It Go" (2007), Jazmine Sullivan's "Need U Bad" (2008), and Monica's "Everything to Me" (2010). Since 2008, songs written and/or produced by Elliott for Fantasia ("Free Yourself"), Jennifer Hudson ("I'm His Only Woman"), Monica ("Everything to Me"), Keyshia Cole ("Let It Go"), and Jazmine Sullivan ("Need U Bad" and "Holding You Down (Goin' in Circles)") have all received Grammy nominations. Both Fantasia's "Free Yourself" (2005) and Sullivan's "Holding You Down (Goin' In Circles)" reached No. 3 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In mid-2010, Elliott embarked on a two-part tour with stops in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, while she also performed at VH1's "Hip Hop Honors: The Dirty South" in a tribute to Timbaland, performing "Get Ur Freak On" and "Work It". In 2008 she made an appearance in "Whatcha Think About That" by The Pussycat Dolls, and performed live in different places with them. In 2011 and 2012, Elliott made guest appearances on "All Night Long" by Demi Lovato, "Nobody's Perfect" by J. Cole, the remix of "Why Stop Now" by Busta Rhymes with Chris Brown and Lil Wayne, and a remix of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" that helped catapult "T.G.I.F". to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also produced Monica's singles "Anything (To Find You)" and "Until It's Gone".

Throughout 2013, Missy Elliott was featured on Eve's album cut "Wanna Be", as well as international artists singles, Little Mix's "How Ya Doin'?" and "NiLiria" with K-pop musician G-Dragon, which was named by Complex magazine as one of the "50 Best Songs of 2013". Elliott also contributed to her protégée Sharaya J's two releases, "Banji" and "Smash Up The Place/Snatch Yo Wigs". In December 2013, Elliott received a Grammy nomination with Fantasia and Kelly Rowland for their song "Without Me". As early as July 2013, Missy Elliott and Timbaland held recording sessions for Kat Dahlia's debut, My Garden (2015). In August 2013, R&B singer Faith Evans revealed that Missy Elliott would be featured on her sixth studio album, tentatively titled Incomparable. In March 2014, Evans revealed one of the tracks was named "I Deserve It", featuring Missy and her protégée Sharaya J, in which Evans cited it as a "banger" and "feel good" record. Evans also revealed that in total Elliott contributed three tracks to her album. On July 7, 2014, fellow R&B singer Monica confirmed that Elliott would be a feature on her upcoming eighth studio album. On July 29, 2014, a snippet of a Missy Elliott–produced song, nickname "I Love Him", premiered on Monica's official Instagram account.

2015–2018: Super Bowl XLIX halftime show and new music

In 2015, Elliott performed at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show with Katy Perry. Elliott performed a medley of "Get Ur Freak On", "Work It", and "Lose Control". The performance was well-received, and boosted digital sales of Elliott's work that week, with a twenty-five-fold increase in album sales (to 2,000 units) and a ten-fold increase in sales of the three songs she performed (to 71,000 units) compared to the week before. It also became the most watched Super Bowl halftime show in NFL history, receiving 118.5 million viewers in the United States. On February 3, 2015, it was confirmed that Elliott would be a feature on the upcoming remix to Diplo and Skrillex's "Take Ü There". On February 11, Elliott stated that she was still in the process of recording her seventh studio album, Block Party, with Timbaland. On April 2, 2015, Pharrell Williams confirmed that he was working on Elliott's album during an episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. On November 12, 2015, "WTF (Where They From)" and its music video were simultaneously released to digital outlets. By November 19, the song and its video had been streamed 6.1 million times in the US alone, with an additional count of 16 million views per YouTube viewing.

On February 7, 2016, the day of the fiftieth Super Bowl, Elliott released a promotional single, "Pep Rally". Later that month, Elliott reunited with former protégée Tweet and frequent collaborator Timbaland on the cut "Somebody Else Will" taken from the former's third studio album, Charlene. By March 15, 2016, First Lady Michelle Obama proclaimed that she had assembled a collaborative track featuring vocals from Missy Elliott, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monáe and Zendaya alongside production credit from pop songwriter Diane Warren and Elliott titled "This Is for My Girls". The iTunes-exclusive record will be used to both coincide with Ms. Obama's SXSW speech and to promote her third-world educational initiative Let Girls Learn.

Following a surprise appearance with TLC on the 2016 televised special Taraji's White Hot Holidays, Elliott announced plans to release a documentary chronicling her impact on the production scene in both audio and video. The midnight of January 27, 2017, saw the full-length release to a new Elliott single titled "I'm Better", featuring production and vocal assistance from recurring sideman Lamb and shared directing credit by Elliott and longtime colleague Dave Meyers.

In July 2018, Missy Elliott teased fans by appearing on a snippet nicknamed "ID" by Skrillex, a release date for the single has yet to be announced. One month later, Elliott appeared on the Ariana Grande number "Borderline", taken from the singer's fourth studio album Sweetener (2018). In October 2018, Elliott announced that she is working on her new album, which would be released in 2019. On March 20, 2019, Lizzo released a collaboration with Elliott titled "Tempo".

2019–present: Recognition and Iconology

On June 13, 2019, Elliott was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, becoming the first female rapper to receive this honor. Elliott received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. She was also the first female rapper to receive the award. Elliott received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Music Pioneer Award at the United Nations in 2019 in recognition for her achievements in music and being a leader. This award was placed in the Congressional Record.

Elliott released her first extended play on August 23, 2019, titled Iconology. The five-track EP features a variety of musical genres that cover the breadth of her career as an artist and has received favorable reviews from critics. Upon release of the album, she also released the lead single, "Throw It Back", with a music video featuring Teyana Taylor. Musically, Iconology is a pop, hip hop and R&B EP reminiscent of Elliott's previous work. The opening track, "Throw It Back" contains "trap snares and a serpentine bassline", which along with the second track, "Cool Off", were described as "woozy, futuristic romps" containing "distorted bass lines and frenetic production". Lyrically, "Throw It Back" contains references to Elliott's history, as well as previous collaborators Tweet and Heavy D. Maura Johnson of Entertainment Weekly described "Cool Off" as calling "back to hip-hop's two-turntables-and-a-mic early days". "DripDemeanor" has been described as a slow jam that explores Elliott's "sensuous side". Musically, it contains "plush synths [that] skip-step underneath" the song's beat. "Why I Still Love You" is a doo-wop song with gospel influences and jazz influence that lyrically chronicles the singer's "conflicted emotions about holding on to a cheating lover". The EP closes with an a cappella version of "Why I Still Love You".

Elliott was motivated to write uplifting music to counter mainstream trends and encourage more dance music to feel good. "DripDemeanor" was released as the album's second single on October 22. "Why I Still Love You" was released as the third single on January 17, 2020. "Cool Off" was released as the fourth and final single from the EP on April 21, 2020.

On June 26, 2020, Elliott appeared on the official remix to Toni Braxton's single "Do It". Elliott co-produced the track alongside Hannon Lane.

On August 13, 2020, Elliott appeared on the remix single "Levitating" by Dua Lipa which also featured Madonna. The remix was produced by The Blessed Madonna. Unlike Madonna, Elliott appeared in the video. The music video was directed by Will Hooper.

On January 11, 2021, Elliott appeared on the single "ATM" by Bree Runway. She directed the music video for "Twerkulator" by the City Girls in July 2021

 (sources: biography.com, Wikipedia) 

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