Backspin: Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot — Supa Dupa Fly (1997)
Missy felt like the future, and the future sounded like freedom. (82.5/100)
On paper, Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot was the least likely artist to break through in the summer of 1997. At a moment of hyper segmentation, she embraced an eclectic array of sounds that defied categorization. At the height of the music video era, Missy - dark skinned, heavy set, and pushing 30 - smashed all the specs for what a female hip-hop ingénue was supposed to embody. While hip-hop wallowed in the malaise of a tragic present, struggling to reckon with a dark recent past that had claimed the lives of its two most transcendent stars, the proudly eccentric dynamo from Portsmouth, Virginia felt like the future. That future sounded like freedom.
Missy Elliot might not have been what we were expecting, but she was exactly what we needed.
“Missy LP number one, blossoming like beautiful flowers” announces an exuberant Busta Rhymes at the conclusion of “Busta’s Intro.” It’s fitting that Missy would enlist a fellow futurist like Busta to coronate the bloom of not only a forward leaning debut, but a visionary career. Rap’s reigning Queen Bee, Lil’ Kim kicks off the first proper song, “Hit ’Em Wit Da Hee,” with a freewheeling endorsement of her own. It’s telling that the…
