Perhaps you first stumbled across Missy Elliott via 1997's iconic The Rain [Supa Dupa Fly] video. Maybe you were one of those tweeting about the 'hot new female rapper' who appeared onstage with Katy Perry at this year's Superbowl. Either way, your first impression of Melissa Elliott would have been -- should have been -- immediate, mind-blowing, brilliant. Dispensing with any sort of pre-existing or accepted ideas of what artistry is and what it looks like, Miss Misdemeanour has been at the forefront of offering an progressive alternative to notions of beauty, femininity and creativity since her debut nearly twenty years ago.
She has rejected the idea of convention sonically, lyrically and visually and, during a time where artists love to bare all -- physically and metaphorically -- Missy stands as a singular icon and iconoclast. She never took her clothes off, she never slagged anyone off, she went out of her way to avoid attention (see: the time she let Britney take one for the team at the 2003 VMA's). She hasn't put her name to any and every brand (apart from Adidas, a label she clearly genuinely loves). You won't see her name on a bottle of booze, a book or bedsheets (although we'd buy them all immediately, obvs).
*/i-d.vice.com
