By Annette Le Couteur
Missy Elliot is a lady who needs no introduction. Her influence is legendary and profound within the music industry and worldwide.
With six albums certified platinum, a five times Grammy award winner, over 30 million records sold in the United states and hits singles such as Get Your Freak On ,Work It, Lose Control and Superfly under her belt, as well as a critically acclaimed 2014 Super Bowl performance, the queen of rap is officially back! Many argued that she was the best thing about the 2015 Super Bowl half time performance (sorry Katy Perry) and I am inclined to agree. With a medley of hits such as Get Your Freak On, Work It, and Lose Control, Missy wowed the audience and had everyone up on their feet and singing and dancing along to her classic songs as well as causing a sensation on social media.
But the path to stardom wasn’t always an easy one for Missy. She had to contend with a troubled childhood, witnessing unspeakable horrors growing up in an abusive home and on the poverty line she would have to watch her father pull a gun on her mother and constantly face the harsh reality of years of abuse at his violent hands.
“He was abusive to my mother. Me and my mother were very very close so watching my father be abusive to my mother was like beating me.”
As well as her terrifying and traumatic experiences with her father, Missy Elliot was sexually molested at the age of eight for over a year by her 16 year old cousin.
Naturally, music became an escape for Missy and she began to write her own music from a young age as well as singing on the microphone.
“Everything I went through as a kid. Music was my outlet. I said one day I’ll be famous and I’m going to rescue my mother. I’m going to get my mother out of this situation.”
As well as a rough start in life Missy also faced the challenge of having to break boundaries within a music industry that didn’t necessarily fit her body image.
In spite of these challenges Missy didn’t give up on her dream and with a creative genius and visionary musical style, she climbed to the top of the rap game fuelled by a passion to prove everyone wrong.
It all started in the the early 90’s when she formed the all female rnb group Fayze. Fortunately her close neighbourhood friend Timbaland was at hand to be the groups producer. After leaving the group Missy and Timbaland became a match made in music heaven, jointly collaborating as a singer/songwriter production team. It was then that they would produce tracks for the legendary princess of rnb Aaliyah who sadly passed away at the tender age of twenty two. Missy and Timbaland elevated her during her short lived yet successful music career by writing and producing classic hits such as One in a Million and Try Again.
However, Elliots own career sky rocketted in 2001 when she collaborated on the track Lady Marmalade with Christina Aguilera, Mya, Pink and Lil Kim for Baz Luhrmann’s film Moulin Rouge which went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and made Missy a house hold name.
The only way was up for Elliot at this point and she produced the American Dream Remix Album in 2003 featuring rapper Timbaland. A year later she also produced another highly critically acclaimed fifth album This Is Not A Test which included the hits Pass That Dutch and I’m Really Hot.
She eventually took a hiatus from music after releasing her sixth album the Cook Book in 2005 and after a much anticipated return to the spotlight at the 2015 Super Bowl…Missy Elliot is now officially back in action!
