All Hail Missy, The Real Queen of The Dirty South
by Michael A. Gonzales
It’s been thirteen years since the futuristic sound of Portsmouth, Virginia native Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott’s debut Supa Dupa Fly changed the sound of Black music in 1997. With the release of her first single “The Rain,” Missy seemingly became an “overnight sensation.”
Yet, contrary to what many fans might’ve known at the time, Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971) had put in much work behind the scenes before becoming a visible success, and eventually a five-time Grammy winner. “Since day one I’ve always did the kind of music that I wanted to do,” Missy recalls. “Of course, when I told my mother that I was going to be a superstar, she thought that I was crazy. She wanted me to join the army or the navy, like my father.”
However, the teenager who had grown up worshipping Michael Jackson had different plans.
“I met Timbaland in 1988 soon after his group SBI (Surrounded By Idiots) with Magoo and Pharrell had broken up,” she says. She had formed a group called Fayze with two other girls and recruited Tim as Mosely as their producer. “We tried to get Teddy Riley’s attention, but he wasn’t checkin’ for us.” Nevertheless, after a chance meeting with Donald “DeVante Swing” DeGrate of the bad boy soul quartet Jodeci in 1992, she and Tim (and the group, whom DeVante renamed Sista) were invited to join his budding production team Swing Mob in Rochester, New York. Jodeci was working on the follow-up to their platinum-selling debut Forever My Lady, an album that would be titled Diary of a Mad Band.
Read the Full Essay @ Soul Summer
by Michael A. Gonzales
It’s been thirteen years since the futuristic sound of Portsmouth, Virginia native Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott’s debut Supa Dupa Fly changed the sound of Black music in 1997. With the release of her first single “The Rain,” Missy seemingly became an “overnight sensation.”
Yet, contrary to what many fans might’ve known at the time, Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971) had put in much work behind the scenes before becoming a visible success, and eventually a five-time Grammy winner. “Since day one I’ve always did the kind of music that I wanted to do,” Missy recalls. “Of course, when I told my mother that I was going to be a superstar, she thought that I was crazy. She wanted me to join the army or the navy, like my father.”
However, the teenager who had grown up worshipping Michael Jackson had different plans.
“I met Timbaland in 1988 soon after his group SBI (Surrounded By Idiots) with Magoo and Pharrell had broken up,” she says. She had formed a group called Fayze with two other girls and recruited Tim as Mosely as their producer. “We tried to get Teddy Riley’s attention, but he wasn’t checkin’ for us.” Nevertheless, after a chance meeting with Donald “DeVante Swing” DeGrate of the bad boy soul quartet Jodeci in 1992, she and Tim (and the group, whom DeVante renamed Sista) were invited to join his budding production team Swing Mob in Rochester, New York. Jodeci was working on the follow-up to their platinum-selling debut Forever My Lady, an album that would be titled Diary of a Mad Band.
Read the Full Essay @ Soul Summer
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