Missy Elliott

Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott is a phenomenon. She did not merely take the traditionally male-dominated recording industry by storm as a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, and head of her own label, she did so in one of the most macho, testosterone-laden of all genres, hip-hop—and, remarkably, she achieved all this in only six years time, by the time she was 28 years of age. Besides Elliott's work writing for and producing the cream of hip-hop and R&B, she has released six CDs to critical and popular acclaim. She was the first hip-hop artist to perform on the Lilith Fair tour. Elliott has been featured in a major ad campaign for the Gap, but she has not hesitated to have fun at the expense of her image in her videos. Elliott has "established herself as a singer-rapper-writer with a welcome penchant for humor and positivity," wrote Michael Musto in Interview. "And with her unconventional approach and severe distaste for BS, she's probably da realest girl in da biz right now."

Melissa Elliott was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her earliest musical experiences were with a church choir. Elliott seems to have known from an early age that she was going to be a star—she told her mother so repeatedly. She began playing the part of the star singer early too. Elliott would sing in her room with a broomstick microphone to an audience of her dolls. "In my mind I pictured them screaming for me. I would go into a whole other zone," she told Joan Morgan of Essence. Elliott wrote her own songs about butterflies, birds, whatever happened to be around. She sang them to passing cars from overturned trash cans, or to her family from atop picnic tables in the park.

Elliott not only vividly imagined herself on stage, she could see her heroes coming to take her to music stardom. "I remember in school writing Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson and asking them to come get me out of class," she told Michael Musto. "I would imagine them running down the hall and asking my teacher, 'Ms. Daniels, can we get Missy out of class? We're here to see Missy.' My imagination was always wild like that. So when I got a call from Janet, just to hear her say she loved my music, it was like a blessing. It was a dream come true to get a call from Mariah [Carey] ... and now I'm just waiting for Michael Jackson to call."

Despite the fact that many of her dreams came true and the impressive power she has in the recording industry, Elliott remains a little star struck by the artists who used to be just voices on records. Whitney Houston called her, she told Musto, and "when I got off the phone I screamed so loud." Elliott's feet are still planted firmly on the ground, however, and she signs autographs patiently for the fans who recognize her on the streets of Manhattan. More significantly, Elliott courageously made public her father's physical abuse of her mother and her own sexual abuse at the hands of a cousin. It was for her a way of taking control of a past that had previously controlled her, as well as drawing attention to a serious social problem that frequently gets swept under the rug.

Elliott got her first musical break in 1991 when the group Jodeci, came to Portsmouth. She took her group, Sista, made up of some of her friends from junior high, to the hotel where Devante Swing, one of the members of Jodeci was staying. He was so impressed by their performance—a set of original tunes written by Elliott—that he signed them to his production company. "We thought we were too hot," Elliott told imusic. "We tried to look just like Jodeci during that audition. We had our pants tucked in our boots. We had begged our mothers to get us these outfits. We even had our canes. We thought we were four hot Devantes."

Sista cut their first album in 1995, and broke up when it became clear that Elektra Records could not afford to release it. Elliott had formed a production team at the company with Timbaland, a childhood friend. Elliott wrote the songs for artists such as Jodeci, Raven-Symone, and 702, and Timbaland produced the records. It was a combination that worked. The two were still working together in late 2000. Despite Sista's apparent failure, Elliott had gotten noticed. "People started to call for songs, or ask me to rap or something, she told imusic.