Missy Elliott Is Rap’s Missing Link Of Supreme Excellence

She’s as (or more) important than Biggie or Jay…

“You should be like Missy ‘stead of bein’ like Mike…”
Missy Elliott, “Not Tonight” (Remix)

The Notorious B.I.G. died on March 9, 1997. As a then music fanatic, college radio personality, and general pop culture aficionado, my listening ear and life in general didn’t improve until a quarter of a year later, on July 15, 1997, when Missy Elliott released Supa Dupa Fly, her debut album. One year prior to Jay-Z telling his “Hard Knock Life” story to significant mainstream appeal over The 45 King’s flip of Little Orphan Annie’s lament, Missy “socked it” to the pop charts in such a way that she created an immediate legacy that has simultaneously flown both above and beneath the radar of hip-hop’s creative and musical supremacy. Many discuss Jay, Puffy, Dre, and others as being the period at the end of the sentence from rap’s unfortunate, yet necessary evolutionary era between 1996–1998. However, it’s in not discussing Missy as being as or more greatly impacting on multiple levels than that group of artists, that you’re missing a tremendous showcase of someone crafting the groundwork upon which rap music and hip-hop culture’s modern dominance is built upon.