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Missy Elliott VibeZ

Missy Elliott made rap records that sounded like they arrived from a decade that had not happened yet. Twenty-four tracks, and most of them still sound ahead of now.

The most inventive career in hip-hop

Melissa Arnette Elliott, from Portsmouth, Virginia, changed popular music twice: once as a writer and producer, and once as an artist. With Timbaland — a friendship going back to their teens — she built a production language in the late 1990s that rewired mainstream R&B: stuttering, off-kilter drum programming, negative space where the beat should be, sounds nobody had used on a pop record before.

She wrote for Aaliyah, 702 and SWV before Supa Dupa Fly arrived in 1997 and made her a star on her own terms. Then came the videos — the Hype Williams collaborations, the inflatable suit, the visual imagination that treated a rap video as a place for genuine surrealism rather than product placement.

In 2023 she became the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was overdue by roughly two decades.

What to listen for

"The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" is the origin point and still startling — built on an Ann Peebles sample, with a beat that seems to be missing pieces on purpose. "Work It" is the most famous, and the backwards-vocal hook remains one of the strangest things ever to top the charts.

"Get Ur Freak On"-era production shows up throughout; "One Minute Man" with Ludacris and "4 My People" with Eve are peak Timbaland. "Lose Control" with Ciara and Fatman Scoop won a Grammy and built a hit on a Cybotron electro sample.

The guest verses are where you see her generosity and her range: Ciara's "1, 2 Step," Tweet's "Oops (Oh My)," Janet Jackson's "BURNITUP!," Keyshia Cole's "Let It Go," and the enormous Busta Rhymes "Touch It" remix with Mary J. Blige, DMX, Rah Digga, Lloyd Banks and Papoose.

"Not Tonight (Remix)" with Lil' Kim, Da Brat, Left Eye and Angie Martinez is a historical document in its own right.

Twenty-four tracks. Still nobody else sounds like this.

Go deeper

Supa Dupa Fly (1997) and Miss E... So Addictive (2001) are the two essential albums. Under Construction (2002) is the most complete.

Then go to the work she did for other people. Aaliyah's One in a Million — written and produced with Timbaland — is arguably the most influential R&B album of the 1990s, and its DNA is in everything that followed. Tweet's Southern Hummingbird is the underrated one.

The videos are not optional. The Hype Williams collaborations, particularly "The Rain" and "She's a Bitch," are among the most inventive short films the format has produced, and they explain her cultural position better than any album can.

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