The Extraordinary Life Of Rap Icon Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot

Shannon Barber | September 12, 2019 12:43 pm

Missy Elliot is one of America's most successful rap artists. She is not just a rapper but is also a producer who owns her own record label, Gold Mind. However, the superstar's success was achieved after a hard-fought battle with early life.

Missy Elliot came from a troubled, broken, and violent home life. This is the sort of situation that can often lead to major problems in adulthood, but she managed to defy the odds and exceed the expectations of all, achieving success beyond that of most people's wildest dreams.

She Was Afraid For Her Mother's Well-Being

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Missy Elliot's childhood was not easy. She was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands one of her cousins when she was just eight years old. In addition to that, her home life was a violent one, filled with fear of her father.

Elliot's father beat her mother so badly that she recounted being afraid to stay with friends for fear that in her absence, her father would beat her mother to death. The violence would continue until her mother was finally able to leave Elliot's father and escape that home life. By that time, Elliot was 14-years-old.

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Life After the Abuse

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Missy Elliot's mother made the decision to leave her abusive husband when her daughter was fourteen years old. The mother-daughter duo struggled to make ends meet without the support of Elliot's father. Despite the hardships, however, Missy Elliot began to come into her own as a musician during these formative years.

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She began writing songs of her own, and that was the beginning of what would eventually become one of the most iconic careers in music and entertainment in American history. At the time, though, her mother was skeptical.

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She Wrote Song Lyrics On Her Bedroom Walls

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Adjusting to life outside her father's abusive home was not easy for Missy Elliot and her mother. They were very poor, and life was lived on a very precarious edge. However, there was no stopping her once her musical creativity was unleashed.

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During this time. Missy Elliot was quite uninterested in school. Although she often skipped classes, she didn't get into any actual trouble. However, she did write her own songs on the walls of her bedroom. Needless to say, her mother was not pleased. Missy kept it up, though, and eventually, her mother realized her daughter's talent and drive and relented.

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Elliot Thought The Jacksons Would Save Her

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While still living under the abusive thumb of her father, Missy Elliot had a most interesting way of plotting escape: The famous singing family, the Jacksons would come rescue her. She was so sure of this that she actually contacted them.

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Elliot frequently wrote to the Jacksons during this time. They were at the height of their legendary, stratospheric fame, and she, like many young people at the time, idolized them. Elliot knew she was special. The Jacksons never came to Missy Elliot's rescue, but she would soon realize her liberation and become a legend in her own right.

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She Had An Interesting Tactic To Get Her Big Break

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Before her high school graduation in 1990, Missy Elliot was already plotting her future as a successful musician. She and three other talented young women formed a singing group called Sista. They were not yet famous, but they made sure they would get there.

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The women were at a Jodeci concert, and afterward, they made sure their names got on the map. They approached the stars they recognized in the lobby of the hotel where the concert was held, and that is where they would eventually get their big break with what could only be described as an impromptu audition.

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Jodeci and Devante Swing

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Missy Elliot and the other members of Sista got Jodeci's Devante Swing to listen to them perform several numbers after their impromptu meeting at the hotel. Swing was positively floored by the talent of the young women's amateur singing group. They were signed to Elektra Records, which was Devante Swing's production company.

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Unfortunately for the young women at that time, the record they recorded with Swing's company was never released. This particular setback would spell the end of the group's time together, as it did not seem that this was to be their path to stardom.

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Missy Collaborates With A Childhood Friend

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After the break-up of Sista, Missy Elliot pursued her stardom on own. She would then go on to work with a friend from her youth, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley. A fellow Virginian, Timbaland and Elliot continue to work together to this day.

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They came together after the breakup of Sista to produce records and write songs. However, her first hit was actually written for Raven Symone, called "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of." Despite the song's success, Missy Elliot didn't become a featured vocalist until much later.

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Working With Puff Daddy Opened Doors

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Things really began to turn around for Missy Elliot when she entered into a collaboration with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs. It would become the first time Elliot was actually featured as a vocalist on an album with a major artist.

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Having co-written the song "The Things You Do" for Gina Thompson, Missy Elliot was featured on Puff Daddy's remixed version of the tune, which became a big hit. This opportunity arrived in 1996, three years after the Raven Symone viral hit. This would be her first step into making her mark as a recording artist in her own right.

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Missy Gets Her Own Label: GoldMind

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After the Puff Daddy collaboration, Elektra Entertainment Group CEO Sylvia Rhone gave Missy Elliot the ultimate opportunity: She would be able to create her own record label. The label in question was called GoldMind. This label would become the vehicle through which Missy Elliot released her 1997 debut solo album, Supa Dupa Fly.

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This first album would be Missy Elliot's break into true stardom. It went platinum, and Rolling Stone magazine named her Rap Artist of the Year. In addition to her own 1997 album, Elliot also co-wrote and co-produced Whitney Houston's 1998 album My Love is Your Love.

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The Most Unique Female Rapper in America

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Missy Elliot's stratospheric rise to fame also included working with artists across the pond. In the United Kingdom, she worked with Mel B. of the Spice Girls on a solo single project called "I Want You Back." That particular song hit number one on the charts in the U.K.

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New Yorker magazine sang Elliot's praises, calling her the "biggest and blackest female rap star that Middle America has ever seen," and insisting that she broke all stereotypes about women in the music industry. She truly made her mark as a trailblazer.

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Defying the Male Gaze

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Female hip hop artists during the peak of the MTV era in the late 1990s and early 2000s often relied on the male gaze for at least part of their success, but not Missy Elliot. She defied the idea that women had to be sexualized to be acceptable artists and became a strong cultural phenomenon without that stereotype in her own right.

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The New Yorker addressed this part of the Missy Elliot phenomenon, saying that she "avoided the prevailing stereotypes of the music-video industry." Music videos from VH1 and MTV changed the music industry on this front, and Missy Elliot ushered in a new era of the female artist.

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Missy's Unique Style

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During the hip hop video rage, Missy Elliot was a breakout artist. She was bold and brave and answered to no one except her own spectacular musical and visual instincts. Missy Elliot sang, danced, wrote, and performed in a way that defied the industry standards. This would become something that opened doors for other artists worldwide.

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Missy Elliot went way over the top for the videos "The Rain" and "Sock it to Me." Instead of the sexy outfits her fellow female artists usually wore, Elliot took to the video screen in huge shoes and inflatable bodysuits.

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Empowering Women

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Missy Elliot's unique way of doing things had another effect: promoting equality for women. According to the esteemed fashion magazine Dazed, Elliot has always wanted to emphasize that women "are equal to men, as important as men and as powerful." This declaration was printed in a 2016 edition of the magazine.

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They went on to say, "If you love Nicki and Beyoncé, it's important to remember the artist who paved the way." This is important and cements the fact that as an artist, Missy Elliot has blazed a trail for women around the nation and world.

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Back-to-Back Platinum Albums

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In 1999 and 2001, Missy Elliot had two albums achieve platinum status. 1999's Da Real World and 2001's Miss E...So Addictive hit the coveted status, and in addition "Under Construction, which was released in 2002 broke numbers for record sales for female rap artists. It sold more than 2.1 million copies in the American music market.

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Under Construction raised Missy Elliot's profile even more, because it featured collaborations with top artists such as Jay Z, TLC, and Beyonce. More success came as she remixed a Madonna single, "American Life." This led to a performance with Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera on the MTV Music Awards.

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Bring on the Awards

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As Missy Elliot continued to soar, the music industry began to bestow many coveted awards upon her for her artistic brilliance. She first joined the elite ranks of Grammy winners in 2002 for her famously unique hit "Get Your Freak On." The beat came courtesy of her old pal Timbaland, and that likely played a role in the song's success. Grammys for "Scream aka. Itchin" and "Work It" followed in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

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The album Under Construction also won a Grammy, as did the video for "Lose Control" in 2006. Missy Elliot has also received accolades from the American Music Awards, the BET Awards, and other industry entities.

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Personal Health Crisis

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In 2005, Elliot was on top of her game with The Cookbook, the album that has largely been credited with the rise of the popularity of EDM. However, she would be sidelined promptly due to poor health. Elliot was diagnosed with Grave's Disease, which attacked her thyroid gland, causing massive weight loss and other debilitating symptoms such as tremors, hair loss, and insomnia.

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After managing the disease through medication, diet, and exercise, Missy Elliot took a back seat for a while, but still wrote and collaborated with other artists through writing and production activities for high-level voices, along with some guest appearances.

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2015: The Comeback

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Missy Elliot returned to the stage front and center in 2015, with a Super Bowl halftime appearance with Katy Perry. Then, she once again released a song, produced by Pharrell, "WTF (Where They From)." The rocking club song earned a gold rating in American music markets and reached the millions in YouTube views. Then came the single "Pep Rally" in 2016.

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Missy Elliot's comeback also included a late-night talk show appearance with then-First Lady Michelle Obama on James Cordon's "Carpool Karaoke." Of the First Lady rapping her lyrics, Elliot said, she felt like she was "daydreaming" in the moment.

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Fame, Fortune, and Shyness

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Missy Elliot revealed that her stardom has bestowed upon her riches unlike most of us can ever dream of. She told Billboard magazine that she actually possesses six homes, two located in Virginia, two in Miami, one in Atlanta, and one in New Jersey. She also has an admirable exotic car collection.

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Despite her fame and riches, though, Elliot still says she's too shy to record in front of anyone - not even Timbaland. When in the studio it's just Elliot and her dogs, two Yorkies she calls Poncho and Hoodie. Her collaborative teams remain relatively small as well.

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Working With A Rising Star

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In July 2019, Missy Elliot opened the next chapter in her musical career by working with an up-and-comer. Rapper and songwriter Lizzo, along with Missy, produced a hugely popular dance track called "Tempo," which has been released as a single.

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Missy Elliot continues to raise her comeback profile, and most prominently trail blazed once again by becoming the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She was also awarded the prestigious Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards.

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August 2019 and New Music

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Missy Elliot's break from public life is officially over. She made her comeback complete with the release of her first full-length album in fourteen years, Iconography. The new music collection has been long-awaited by her devoted fans and the music industry alike. Elliot's brilliance was never forgotten and has been sorely missed.

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Missy Elliot's good fortune was hard-fought and hard-won. She often credits her faith with getting her through the rough times and is forever grateful for all she has. The music industry and fans are grateful to have her as well.