The Friday Canon: MISSY ELLIOTT

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

You asked for it, here she is: Melissa Elliott, the Queen of Hip-Hop! Man that canon!

Missy TRUFAX:

Missy has a Yorkshire terrier called Poncho. AMAZING.

There is going to be a Missy Elliot biopic!

Nelly Furtado did vocals on a version of Get UR Freak On for the Tomb Raider film! Why did I not know this before?

You poptimists get just SEVEN picks out of the 22 UK Top 40 singles on which Missy has an artist credit (she gets about a bit, does our Mel). Good luck!

[Poll #928502]

NB: The Canon index is taking shape. Watch this space.

Comments

Missy As Hit Songwriter For Other People

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Oops Oh My" is her isn't it? And "My Love Is Like Wo" by Mya, which only I seem to like! And "No Panties" by Trina, and maybe other Trina songs.

Re: Missy As Hit Songwriter For Other People

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

She's all over the place. Her & Timbaland did some stuff for Aaliyah together I think as well.

Qn: does Missy tend to steal the show when appearing on other ppl's songs? Above I have put 'ft' where the song is primarily a Missy track, and 'w/' when she is the 'ft' or it is a joint effort (see Carwash). Though saying that, Lose Control should be a 'ft' rather than a 'w/', stupid not-being-able-to-edit-polls...

Re: Missy As Hit Songwriter For Other People

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I didn't know she wrote 'My Love Is Like Wo' - must look at credits when I get home. I knew she did the v fantastic 'Step' (and maybe 'Late') off the same Mya album.

I'm never entirely sure, out of the gazillion great songs which fall under the large Missy/Timba stable, who wrote/co-wrote what.

Why I love 'Pass That Dutch' as much as 'Work It'

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

it deepens and intensifies the 'Work It' bassline for added dancefloor pressure. so simple so effective. possibly the best one-note bassline ever (along with or except maybe 'Energy Flash' tho that's a bit more complicated - relatively).

'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream so..

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

this is a bit too simplistic when you consider Salt n' Pepa and TLC tho. i suppose a lot of it is down to Missy literally using her weight for her to combat others using it against her which none of the others had to worry about.

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[koganbot]

Kat, was there "the way" that people thought about women in rap? Seems as if Sha Rock and L'Trimm and the two Roxannes cover a wide range of femalehood. (But none of them were big on the charts, so...)

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

From a personal perspective [Warning: following contains rockist viewpoints not necessarily still held by the author!] I didn't really 'think' about women in rap at all! As an indie sn0b I faithfully read my feminemineminist book about "Women In Rawk" and assumed that in the US only the riot-grrls were worthy of any sort of respect, from a musical viewpoint at least. UK girls to me were either pop puppets (Spicers, Daphne&Celeste, All Saints) or just rubbish (Sleeper, Texas) with only Elastica as the shining beacon. It didn't even occur to me that rap was something to be worthy of inclusion in my v narrow spectrum until Eminem came along, then I kinda had to work backwards from there for my rap education.

I saw Salt'n'Pepa, TLC etc as pop acts (and still do) - certainly not hiphop. In fact I'm struggling to think of any other solo female US rappers apart from Princess Superstar (who also falls under pop)! In the UK now it's a bit different with the whole grime thing (Lady Sov, Shystie &co) - it's the new punk in terms of gender equality, dontchewknow!

Man I just googled "uk female rappers" and found this (http://www.britishhiphop.co.uk/features/articles/the_crate_diggers_uk_rap_lists.html): Betty Boo!

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[(Anonymous)]

well note that i said 'women in rap' not necessarily upholding some rockist ideas about what hip-hop represents ;)

personalities have come and gone from Da Brat (by name by nature) to Lady Of Rage ('Afro Puffs' sooooo phat) and Rah Digga (hilariously deadpan) - all technically good but not taken srsly enough. Eve is another who did pretty well but only really by making it more rnbpop than hiphop.

stevem78

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Kat seriously track down the videos for 'How Many Licks?' by Lil Kim and 'B R Right' by Trina on youtube, you will love them!

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[koganbot]

Salt 'n' Pepa were definitely viewed as a rap act (which doesn't preclude their being viewed as a pop act as well). But then, hip-hop and pop impinged on each other from as soon as there was a hip-hop in '70s clubs and block parties. The music was mainly funk (w/ some disco), but Bambaataa would interject the Monkees' "Mary Mary" and the Stones' "Honky-Tonk Woman" and whatever else struck his fancy, and both he and Grandmaster Flash were huge on Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express." As soon as raps were getting recorded, women rappers were getting on record: Lady B, Sha Rock who was in Funky Four Plus One, Sequence (it may have helped that the most successful of the early rap labels, Sugarhill, was run by a woman: Sylvia Robinson). But my guess is that Salt N Pepa weren't getting much respect from people who liked to plump for "real rap."* Probably the one who did get a reasonable amount of respect was Roxanne Shanté, who was produced by Marley Marl, an important hip-hop producer in the '80s. She first recorded at age 13 but didn't push to keep her career going (got pregnant early, I think). (The ever-trustworthy Wikipedia says, "After earning a Ph.D. in psychology, she returned to Queens, New York, where she is a psychologist with a successful practice. She is a vegan, is married, and has one son.")

*But unsurprisingly, such people can be doofuses. I remember some guys on the Jay-Z vs. Nas Throwdown thread deriding Jay-Z for being too pop.

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[koganbot]

"Live On Stage".

Actually on stage.

"Roxanne's Revenge" (but a paler version rerecorded without swear words).

The Roxanne era.

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure Missy changed much of anything. She was different but very much a one-off, and there's no one really following in her footsteps.

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

yeah i guess you're right - it is interesting and disappointing that no-one like her has come thru since. but then there haven't been any big breakthru female rappers full stop this decade have there? it's all back to rnb chanteuses. :(

need a new Salt n Pepa baaaad, and an American MIA ;)

this industry is so full of sh1t and eveything is lurching backwards

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[(Anonymous)]

if Princess Superstar hadn't hopped on the electroclash-based bandwagon she'd be in obscurity after one hit too.

Re: 'changed the way people think about women in rap (along with lil kim, but missy more mainstream

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

r&b chanteuses are starting to rap more, haha. ciara and kelis!

i've found the new MIA btw (second after tigarah), she is on new bpitch control compilation. her band is jahcoozi and the song is called BLN, a berlin riposte to LDN. it's funny.

there is lots of interesting ho-rap around but i guess ho-rappers these days have to push things even further than S'n'P and TLC did, which means they're basically unplayable on radio.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

The only one I remember is that version of Lady Marmalade she was on. And vaguely the video for another one.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Bums, I knew I'd missed something. It didn't come up on a search for 'Missy' on everyhit so it didn't make the list. She only does the intro and outro IIRC.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

She's not officially credited - her main contribution was the production and if we started listing all of her productions we'd be here all day.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

A lot of my favorite Missy songs are album tracks. For example, my favorite overall is "Can't Stop" from her most recent album, the song she did with Rich Harrison.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think the last two albums are the only ones where the album tracks are significantly better than the singles ('Lose Control' excepted) - if 'Let Me Fix My Weave', 'Toyz' and 'Spelling Bee' had been the singles off This Is Not A Test I doubt it'd have the disappointing rep it does. Though to be fair even people who like it would agree it's Missy's least good album.

'Whatcha Gon Do' (off So Addictive) and 'Bad Man' and 'My Struggles' (off The Cookbook are I think the great lost Missy album tracks. Also a bunch off Da Real World but that album is essentially perfect from start to end, so no point listing them - but seriously, 'Mr DJ' with Lady Saw. AMAZING.)

[pot80.livejournal.com]

I like "Old School Joint" from Miss E a lot. She's just got a lot of really great songs, you know? The album cuts aren't always better than the big hits, but some of them stand up rather well. Oh, I love "Pussycat" and "Irresistable Delicious" a lot too!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

REALLY hard narrowing it down; very sorry to see 'Lose Control', 'One Minute Man' and 'Hot Boyz' (driving BENZ JEEPS and them LEXUS JEEPS) unticked! Maybe would have ticked '1 2 Step' but it's more Ciara's jam really.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Not that I didn't know it, but looking at this list clearly exposes the massive gaps in my pop knowledge.

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

the track on the tomb raider soundtrack is great, you really ought to hear it. furtado kills.

there's a good outkast track on there too, which i don't doubt would be of interest to 'b.o.b.'-loving poptimists - 'speedballin'.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Why am I the only person to like 'Cop That Disc?' That was ace, that was.