Missy Elliott Recalls “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” Video: “Nothing Seemed Crazy To Me”
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Ahead of headlining this year’s ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans, Missy Elliott graced the publication’s July/August cover dedicated to detailing her “Midas Touch” in music. Not only did the global icon speak on serious matters like mental health and battling Grave’s Disease, she also kept it light as she recalled filming the groundbreaking 1997 music video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”
Elliott’s videos in the ’90s and early ’00s were a game changer and noticeably different from visuals released by her counterparts. While many other women who rap were keeping it sexy in their videos, or proving that they could go toe-to-toe with the boys, the Hall of Famer was more focused on creating moments while having fun.
Missy’s inflated patent leather jumpsuit, vintage Alain Mikli shades, and perfectly sculpted finger waves immediately ring a bell when it comes to one of her most iconic videos. “I want to do everything that I say in the song,” Elliott recalled telling Hype Williams, who directed the video and is credited for her unforgettable look.
“I was having fun when doing the videos,” she told the outlet. “I never even thought, ‘Let me try to do the most outlandish thing.’ That never crossed my mind, ever. It just spoke to who I was in school. For me to put on something to make me look even bigger than what I was, that was not the typical thing. Everything was kind of like a look back then. But, like I said, nothing is too outlandish for me.”
Rapping in a Jeep Wrangler, sitting atop a hill dressed in neon green, and wearing mono-colored ensembles can bring anyone back to that moment in Hip-Hop when videos were weird, fun, and unlike anything you’ve seen before. Not to mention, the rapstress made space suits cool and also represented for the more voluptuous spitters in Hip-Hop.
“I was always just different,” she told the outlet. “So by the time I started doing videos, the music just really spoke to who I was as a person. And so I never thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this, and this is going to change the world. It’s going to change the way videos look.’ Or ‘I want to do the craziest thing ever.’ Nothing seemed crazy to me.”
Revisit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” below:
As she prepares to take NOLA by storm next week, the 51-year-old continues to receive all of her flowers — most recently being honored by the National Museum Of African American Music. This upcoming November, she will also be inducted into the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Not only is this a major milestone in the music icon’s decades-long career, but she has now made history as the first woman who raps to garner the elite accolade.
Elsewhere in the trailblazer’s trek, Elliott garnered four Grammy awards and created Platinum-selling albums, including Supa Dupa Fly, This Is Not A Test!, Da Real World, Miss E… So Addictive, The Cookbook, and the 2x multi-Platinum album, Under Construction. She has also had a street named after her in her hometown of Portsmouth, Va.
As if she hasn’t accomplished enough, the MC has made “herstory” as the first woman rapper and third rapper ever to be honored with a MTV Video Vanguard Award and to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The mother-of-two also holds two honorary doctorates and the Woman’s Entrepreneurship Day Music Pioneer Award, presented by the United Nations.
Ready to take fans on a nostalgic journey through her illustrious career, Missy Elliott will take the ESSENCE Festival stage as the headliner at the Caesars Superdome from June 29 to July 3 in New Orleans. In the meantime, read her entire cover story with ESSENCE here.
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