Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott, the Portsmouth-born rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, spent the first half of the '90s learning the game from the inside. She came up in the R&B girl group Sista, part of DeVante Swing's Swing Mob collective, and when that group's Elektra album won praise but not sales, she teamed with fellow Swing Mob graduate Timbaland to write and produce hits for Aaliyah, SWV, 702 and Total.

Then she stepped out front. Supa Dupa Fly in 1997 was a head-spinner, and "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" oozed along on Missy's sly, woozy flow; the album reached number three on the Billboard 200. Da Real World followed in 1999, and the 2001 album Miss E... So Addictive made the case that nobody in hip-hop sounded this strange and this fun at once, with "Get Ur Freak On" plinking along like a transmission from another planet. Under Construction in 2002 brought "Work It", a floor-filler that climbed to number two on the Hot 100, and like "Scream a.k.a. Itchin" before it, it won her the Grammy for Best Female Rap Solo Performance.

Her videos were half the thrill, which is why MTV handed her the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. She's sold 40 million records, and in 2023 she became the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.