NOW SEE HERE, MISSY
Rap superstar discusses writing hits for Aaliyah, Beyoncé and herself
Missy Elliott, who has a history of writing and producing some of pop music’s most creative and catchy songs, breaks down some of the hits she’s written for herself and others. Elliott is one of the nominees for the 2019 Songwriters Hall of Fame.
AALIYAH, ONE IN A MILLION
Aaliyah was coming off the major success of her 1994 debut album when newcomers Elliott and Timbaland were called in to work on one song with the R&B goddess.
But one song turned into eight, and One in a Million — the song and the album — was born.
“I was scared. I don’t know if Tim was scared when we first played it because it was a different sound. It was a different way to attack records because people were really singing then; that world of rap-singing didn’t really exist,” Elliott explained.
Elliott and Timbaland would go on to form a special bond with Aaliyah — as heard on One in a Million and its followup Aaliyah, released a month before Aaliyah died in 2001.
702, WHERE MY GIRLS AT?
702’s Where My Girls At? reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart in 1999, but Elliott said she initially wrote the anthem for TLC.
“Lisa (Left Eye) Lopes really wanted it, she really wanted that record, but I guess if it’s two against one (what can you do)? So I ended up giving that record to 702, which was cool because they were a group. I knew whoever had it, I wanted it to be going to a group.”
Of the biggest songs of 1999, Where My Girls At? was ranked No. 11 by Billboard.
MISSY ELLIOTT, THE RAIN (SUPA DUPA FLY)
Elliott said she created her debut single, The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) — and her first album — in an agreement to get her own label so she could sign artists and produce for them.
“Of course, those were my smoke days, you can tell by the first line. I just went in and I just said whatever I felt. Back then, there was no expectation, so it wasn’t like I had to really think and say, ‘OK, I have to make something better than what I did the last time.’ This was my first time going in, so it was like, whatever the music made me feel, I said it,” she said.
DESTINY’S CHILD, CONFESSIONS
Elliott worked on the song Confessions, from the group’s sophomore album The Writing ’s on the Wall, which gave them their breakthrough.
“They all had something special. And Beyoncé, she knew exactly how to attack a record,” Elliott said. “When I heard Bey singing the verses, I was like, ‘Oh they finna go far.’”
MISSY ELLIOTT, GET UR FREAK ON
After Elliott created most of the music for her third album, Miss E ... So Addictive, she felt like she was missing something. But Timbaland didn’t.
“By this time, he’s annoyed. He just happened to be in front of the keyboard and he starts just pressing the buttons on the keyboard but he when was doing it, he was mad,” she recalled. “He begins to create around this sound.”
It later became Get Ur Freak On, the album’s first single and a monster hit for Elliott. It won the best rap solo performance Grammy, beating out Jay-Z, DMX and Nelly.
“I’m always a headache to Timbaland. He has to take vacations after we’re done with my album because I stress him out,” she said.
CIARA FEATURING MISSY ELLIOTT, 1, 2 STEP
Elliott was busy working her own music and hadn’t heard Ciara’s debut hit, Goodies, when she was asked to write a song for her.
“Back then people weren’t really sing-rapping. Now that’s the thing. But I wanted it to be where she still kind of rap-sings it. It allowed her to be able to dance, so she’s not sitting there trying to do all these runs and sing and all that stuff, because you can’t really get off when you trying to sing and then you trying to do the whole matrix thing going backward,” she said, referring to Ciara’s skilled dancing.
They finally met on the set of 1, 2 Step, Ciara’s second single, which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart.
MISSY ELLIOTT, WORK IT
The hook of Elliott’s Work It features a famous line where the lyrics are played in reverse. She said it was a accident.
“The reverse thing, that was a mistake. The engineer happened to hit something, and it just went backward, and I was like, ‘Oh that’s kind of crazy because it went backward on the beat. So, after that happened, I said, ‘Yo, keep that in there, and I’m going to write around it.’”
The internet in 2002 went crazy as fans tried to figure out what Elliott was saying in the song. Some thought it was a secret code or message.
“They thought I was saying all kinds of nasty stuff,” she said. “No, actually, I’m not, this time.”
Work It was the first single from Elliott’s fourth album, Under Construction, which earned a Grammy nomination for album of the year.