Missy Elliott Bio

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Denis Loncaric

Denis is a drummer and full-time music content writer. His love of Hip Hop comes from the style of gospel drummers. His taste in artists varies from favorites like Eminem to Serbian rap artists like Edo Majkaa and Marchelo.

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• Ice-T Bio - September 14, 2022
• Missy Elliott Bio - August 13, 2022
• Big Sean Bio - August 9, 2022

Hear, hear, I represent you one of the greatest, baddest, most talented worldwide rappers, singers, and music producers, miss Melissa Arnette Elliott aka Missy Elliott. You probably know her as a solo singer, but Missy was in a pretty successful girl group Sista and has made some great appearances in over 10 movies!

Missy has made some incredible albums and hits along with her acting career. I had to give her huge respect if we take into consideration what she has been through as a child and into the woman she has grown to be. Let’s dive into her tough childhood life, her first steps into the rap world, and some family issues she has gone through. But, before that, check up on some quick facts about our miss Missy.

Missy Elliott Quick Facts

Missy Elliott Birthplace

Missy was born in Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Virginia, the United States, on July 1st, 1971. Missy is the only child of her parents, and since a young age, Missy has been interested in music. She participated in the church choir with her family, and from an early age, she knew that she wanted to be involved in the world of music. 

While her father was an active Marine, she lived with her family in a manufactured home community in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Despite having little interest in schoolwork, Missy loved school because she had made some log-life friendships there.

However, when her father returned from Marine, Missy and her family moved back to Virginia. This period of her life was extremely hard for many reasons, but mainly because the family experienced extreme poverty. But, luckily things changed once Missy moved with her mother and slowly started to live a life with full lungs!

Missy Elliott Parents

Missy’s mom is Patrica Elliott, while her father is Ronnie Elliott, and she is the only child of her parents. Ronnie was a U.S Marine, while her mother worked as a dispatcher at a power company. 

Unfortunately, there is not much information about Missy’s parents; however, I know that her early life and childhood were not easy. Missy has opened up to the public about her abusive father and her hero mother, that saved her life. After 14 years of disaster, Patrica and Missy finally managed to escape this madness. 

With a lot of courage and a little bit of luck, little Missy and her mother moved out from Patrica’s abusive husband and, unfortunately, kept living in fear of that man. But luckily, all the bad things must come to an end; thus, the poverty and fear stopped once Missy forms a girl band, Sista. 

Missy Elliott Early Life

As you can see by now, Missy had a tough childhood. Firstly, I have to begin with her abusive and problematic father, Ronnie.

It wasn’t enough that her family was drawing in depts and living in ruins rather than a home. Her father was absolutely unreasonable to her and her mother. He would beat both of them irrationally, as Missy said, because mice were running on her while she was sleeping. So not only did Missy and Patrica suffer from psychological abuse, but they were also physically abused by Ronnie non-stop. But even that is not the end of his action.

Missy has claimed that he had a gun, and he threatened to kill her mother oftentimes. When Elliott was only eight years old, she was sexually abused by her cousin. The things that happened at home weren’t enough, but she had to go through a most undesirable situation – being molested by a family member. 

But, as any mother would, Patricia finally had the courage to escape this horror with her only child and move from their home just a little later after Missy’s 14th birthday. But, even when they moved out, the poverty and fear did not stop. Finally, Missy confessed that she was leaving in fear that her father would come and kill her mother, so she would never leave her home and her mother alone! What a kid has to go through at such a young age…

In the meantime, while all this chaos was happening, little Missy was still in school, where she was tested and confirmed that she had above average IQ. No matter how flattering this might sound, Missy had to go through another challenging period in school.

Because of her high IQ, they moved Elliott 2 grades above her age which was not good for her young self. She didn’t feel like she belonged there, she handled tests under a lot of pressure, and eventually, they moved her back in the grade with her peers. 

Even then, little Elliott knew that she wanted to be involved in the world of music. And her only savior was, nonetheless but Michael and Janet Jackson and her own lyrics that she wrote on her wall. But Missy never received the support she needed. She was often underestimated and was told to get ‘the real job’ instead of trying to become a rapper.

Luckily, things drastically changed when Missy formed a band known as Sista. Elliott and her three close friends, LaShawn Shellman, Radiah Scott, and Chonita Coleman, were in the band with the help of Missy’s neighbor Tim Moseley and songwriting buddy better known as Timbaland. 

Missy Elliott Professional Career

Sista Band and Missy’s First Career Steps

At the point where Missy formed a girl band, her life drastically changed, and her professional career started to develop. The ‘Sista,’ initially named ‘Fayze,’ was formed in 1991 when Missy was only 20. The group moved to New York City and signed a contract with Elektra Records soon enough.

This was done through DeVante’s Swing Mob imprint when the band decided to change their group name. In 1993, Sista released its first debut song called ‘Brand New.’

At that period of time, young Missy got a chance to write and rap on Raven-Symoné’s debut song. But besides that, she was also on Jodeci albums, including the one from 1993, Diary of a Mad Band and The Show, the After Party, and the Hotel from 1995.

Elliott’s lovely friend and, at that time, already known rapper Timbaland along with DeVante, happily produced the girls’ band album in 1994 called ‘4 All the Sistas Around da World’. It was then official that the band Sista was part of the Swing Mob group. 

Despite this, the Swing Mob broke up in 1995, and many of its members parted their ways. However, little Missy and Timbaland, among a few other past members, continued to work together as The Superfriends for the rest of the decade.

Missy’s Features, Guest Appearances, and Debut Albums

Missy was mostly doing a production of the songs as well as writing along with her teammate Timbaland. They have been doing that for many famous artists but most for fantastic Aaliyah. To be precise, they wrote and produced nine of Aaliyah’s tracks for her second album released in 1996, entitled ‘One in a Million. 

Besides that, Missy sang background vocals to nearly every track she and Timbaland collaborated. Aaliyah’s album went double platinum, and these two production duos became stars. The duo has worked together for many artists such as Destiny Child, Total, Nicole Wray, and many more.

In 1996, Missy signed a contract to create her own imprint entitled ‘The Goldmind Inc.,’ in collaboration with East West Records. As anyone would expect, Timbaland was still her duo, her production partner. But Elliott still worked with other singers and rappers besides cooking something of her own.

In all that chaos of being super-wanted as both a writer and guest artist, Missy finally published her first debut album, ‘Supa Dupa Fly,’ in 1997. The only thing you should know is that her lead single, ‘The Rain,’ made the album certified platinum.

With many features and collaborations in between her album, Missy made some iconic moments with the goddess Whitney Houston and collaborated with one of the Spice Girls – Melanie Brown, on her debut single, amongst many others.

Missy’s second album ‘Da Real World’ published in 1999, was equally successful as the first one. It sold over 3 million copies worldwide. She had notable collaborations on this album with artists such as Nicole Wray and Big Boi. 

Before we knew it, Missy prepared and released another great album. Her third debut album, known as ‘Miss E… So Addictive’ was released in 2001. Soon, her third album reached no. 2 in the US and sold over 250,000 copies in only its first week.

You probably know some of her greatest hits from this album, including ‘One Minute Man’ with Ludacris & Trina and the unforgettable hit ‘4 My People.’

Besides her incredible success with her albums and hits, Missy build a fantastic path of being a producer. She co-produced an unremarkable hit for Moulin Rouge in 2001 known as ‘Lady Marmalade’ for the movie Moulin Rouge! which soon reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Under Construction and Next Album

And just when everyone thought Missy couldn’t get any better, she made the best female rap album of all time! In 2002, Missy released her fourth debut album, ‘Under Construction,’ which counts over 2.1 million copies sold only in the USA.

With this album, Elliott received much praise and many nominations and awards. Thanks to ‘Under Construction’ Missy won her first Grammy, while, soon after, in 2003, The New York Times published that ‘Under Construction’ was the best hip-hop album that year.

She also published two more tracks in addition to this album. The first one was ‘Work It,’ which was number two on Billboard’s Hot 100. The second one was ‘Gossip Folks’ with Ludacris, which gained fantastic feedback from the audience and fans and was one of the most played songs on TV! 

A year after her massively successful album was published, Missy prepared another one. Unfortunately, this album was more due to her label than her own initiative or creativity. The album is entitled ‘This Is Not a Test!’ and was released in 2003.

As anyone would expect, this album was not as successful as her previous one since it was more ‘forced’ to be made and published. Nevertheless, it made over 690,000 copies in the USA and was declared by the Recording Industry Association of America as a certified platinum album, which was still a big thing.

Overall, it was more than evident that these were her best years. Missy sold over 7.6 million copies in America and became the first and best female rapper with best-selling albums in the USA. 

The Sixth Album and The New Compilation Album 

Two years after her last album, Missy realized ‘The Cookbook’ – her sixth solo album. The album was published in early 2005 and reached incredible no. 2 on the U.S. charts, with the Recording Industry Association of America declaring it certified gold.

Another great album and a huge success, which was approved by her incredible 5 Grammy nominations, with her first single, ‘Lose Control,’ winning her a second Grammy.

Alongside remarkable succes with her sixth album, Missy prepared her first ‘biggest hits’ album entitled ‘Respect M.E.’ released in 2006 outside USA and Canada. This compilation album became a great deal, achieving her highest-charting album to date, reaching number seven, and her second top 10 albums in the United Kingdom.

From 2007 until 2014, Missy has done a lot of production, writing, and producing, as well as in between her albums. One of the most famous artists she collaborated with were Keyshia Cole, Jennifer Hudson, and Jazmine Sullivan, and she made some guest appearances with wonderful Pussycat Dolls, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, and Busta Rhymes, among many others.

Her amazing work has never stopped. In 2013 she made some great collaborations with the fantastic girl band Little Mix and worked with incredible K-pop star G-Dragon. Alongside that, Missy was on Faith Evans’s sixth studio album and contributed to three of her songs. 

A year and a year after a year of success. Missy has done incredible things, and she was not planning on stopping. In 2015 she made a show to remember the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show with her long-time friend and superstar Katy Perry.

Elliott performed three of her iconic songs, including ‘Lose Control,’ ‘Get Ur Freak On, and ‘Work It.’ Not long after the Super Bowl, Missy confessed that she was working on her next studio album with her forever BFF Timbaland and a bit after Pharrell Williams joined the team for production. 

Along the way, Missy released some promotions singles such as ‘Pep Rally,’ and a little bit later, at the beginning of 2016, Missy made a collaborative track on the initiative of First Lady Michael Obama. The track ‘This is For My Girls’ was for Obama’s South by Southwest speech.

Throughout 2016 and 2017, Missy made surprising appearances with Taraji and published a new hit, ‘I’m better’ where she worked with fantastic director Dave Meyers. In 2018, Elliott appeared on Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album, Sweetener, and soon enough, she announced that she was in the making of her new studio album.

Awards and Iconology

2019 marked Elliott’s first induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, receiving the honor of the first female rapper. Additionally, in recognition of her achievements in music in 2019, Missy received the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Music Pioneer Award at the United Nations. 

Not long after her awards and recognition, Missy published her first extended play entitled ‘Iconology .’Iconology represent a mix of different music styles, including hip hop, pop, and R&B. The EP has five tracks on it, all of which were a mix of different musical genres spanning her career as an artist. In addition, Elliott wrote uplifting music as a counterpoint to mainstream trends and to encourage more people to feel good when listening to dance music. 

In 2020 Missy co-produced the single ‘Do It’ – a remix version of Toni Braxton’s song and made an appearance on Dua Lipa’s song ‘Levitating .’The latest thing that Missy has done is directed an incredible video for City Girls for their song ‘Twerkulator’ where she did a fantastic job, and to be honest, I’m feeling like she is preparing something new very soon for us!

Missy Elliott Video 

Probably the highest recognition that Missy has gained was her contribution to the mega-hit Lady Marmalade for the movie Moulin Rouge!

This video counts over 460 million views, and it is famous worldwide! As for her features in music videos, Missy has made a huge hit with Ciara, called ‘1, 2 Step’, which counts over 245 million views. Other great hits and videos were ‘How You Doin’ by Little mix with 86 a million views and ‘Let It Go’ by Keyisha Cole featuring Missy and Lil’ Kim with over 84 million views. 

When it comes to her solo songs, the most popular one has to be ‘Work It’s counting almost 130 million views. Even though the song was published in 2009, this song was a massive hit during the Vine days, and a huge club hit, even today! The second place goes to her another club hit, ‘Get Ur Freak On’ with 68 million views, and the third place, ‘Lose Control’ featuring Ciara and Fat Man Scoop. 

Missy Elliott Family 

As I mentioned before, Missy was an only child, and since she, unfortunately, didn’t have an amicable relationship with her father, she only stayed in a close relationship with her hero and mother, Patricia Elliott. 

When it comes to her own relationship with her significant other, Missy likes keeping things private. Elliott has never been married or engaged, or at least what I know from the sources. However, what is assumed is that Missy Elliott is gay and that she has been involved with other women but men as well. 

There were speculations that she was in a love relationship with American actor Laz Alonso, but this information has never been officially confirmed. Aside from that, there we a lot of speculations that she has been dating Nicole Wray back in the 90s and later Olivia Longott – again, just rumors. 

In the last couple of years, there have been some stories that Missy is dating American choreographer and rapper Sharaya. Reportedly the couple got secretly married in 2013, so almost 10 years now, but again, these are just rumors and not official information from any side. As of this moment, it is still speculated that Missy is in a relationship with Sharaya, and they do not have kids. 

Missy Elliott Dating and Relationship History

As you can already come to a conclusion from the section above, Missy was very private about her love life. As a result, I, as well as the many sources I looked upon, have very little information about her relationship history. 

Apparently, Missy has had a lot of relationships with popular artists. Aside from the mentioned ones above, there were speculations that she was emotionally involved with Trina and Lil’ Kim, but again non of these rumors have officially been approved.

From what I know, for now, Missy has been happily married to Sharaya J for almost 10 years, and I wish her all the luck in the future, both regarding her love life and career because she totally deserves it!

Missy Elliott Controversies or Scandals 

When you are in the music industry and part of this crazy world, it’s tough to stay out of scandals. However, in Missy’s almost 30 years long career, she had no major incidents or scandals. There were some rumors that she was not on good terms with Madonna; however, these were just rumors, and I cannot confirm it officially as a scandal.

The only thing in the public’s eye was her lawsuit against Bad Bunny. Reportedly, Bad Bunny or Puerto Rican plagiarized the part of her single ‘Get Ur Freak On’ without her consent. Missy won the lawsuit, which means that Bad Bunny needs to pay her a certain percentage for his song where he used the track of her song. 

Missy Elliott Net Worth and Career Earnings

At this moment, Missy Elliott’s net worth is estimated at $50 million, while her annual incomes are around $8.5 million.

Missy Elliott Real Estate & Residence History

In 2002 Missy made headlines when she landed a house worth $1.3 million in Aventura, Florida. As reported by Redfin, Elliott held onto this house for years, after which she sold it in 2014 for $1.45 million. 

The cutest thing she has done is provide real estate to her mom as well. More than 20 years ago, Missy bought a beautiful mansion in Virginia Beach for her mom, which was shown on MTV Cribs. The mansion is just jaw-dropping with 11,000 square feet. Besides being at her mom’s house, Missy spends much of her time there. 

Missy has another beautiful mansion in New Jersey. Reportedly, Missy repurchased this house in 2000 for around $1.2 million. The house looks incredible; however, it looks a little bit spooky since it is located all around the dense forest. 

Missy Elliott Famous Quotes

As any artist, Missy has had some great quotes both from her interviews and her songs. Here I singled out my top 3 Missy Elliott Quotes:

#1 ‘If you got talent, you just have to do you.’ – https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top-10-missy-elliott-quotes 

#2 ‘Music should be your escape.’ https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top-10-missy-elliott-quotes  

#3 ‘What my home life is like now is great.’ https://wealthygorilla.com/missy-elliott-quotes/ 

Missy Elliott Discography & Full Credits 

For almost 30 years in the music industry Missy Elliott has managed to release:

• Six studio albums
• Three compilation albums
• 1 EP
• 22 music videos
• 74 singles

Studio Albums

• July 1997: Supa Dupa Fly
• June 1999: Da Real World
• May 2001: Miss E… So Addictive
• November 2002: Under Construction
• November 2003: This Is Not a Test!
• July 2005: The Cookbook

Collaborative albums

• September, 2005: Recipe of Hits
• September, 2006: Respect M.E.
• September 13, 2013: Original Album Series

EPs

August 2019: Iconology

Missy Elliott Awards Section

Missy Elliott has received 360 nominations and had 216 wins, which is incredible! However, I cannot state all of her wins because it would take me forever, so I decided to name just the most significant ones. Let’s check them.

American Music Awards:

• Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Female Artist in 2003 
• Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Female Artist in 2005 

Billboard Music Awards & Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Awards

• Female R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year in 2001 
• Top Female R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year in 2003
• Hot Rap Track in 2003 for ‘Work It’ 

Grammy Awards

• Best Rap Solo Performance in 2002 for ‘Get Ur Freak On’
• Best Female Rap Solo Performance in 2003 for ‘Scream a.k.a. Itchin’
• Best Female Rap Solo Performance in 2004 for ‘Work It’
• Best Short Form Music Video in 2006 for ‘Lose Control’ ft. Ciara and Fatman Scoop

Songwriters Hall of Fame

The first rapper in the hall of fame in 2021

MTV Video Music Awards

• Best Direction in a Video in 1997 for ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’
• Best Hip-Hop Video in 2003 for ‘Work It’
• Best Dance Video in 2005 for ‘Lose Control’
• Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2019

Teen Choice Awards

• Choice Music: R&B/Hip-Hop Artist in 2001
• Choice Music: Rap Artist in 2003
• Choice Music: Rap Artist in 2006

ASCAP Pop Music Awards

• Award Winning Songs in 2004 for ‘Work It’
• Most Performed Songs in 2004 for ‘Loose Cotrol’
• Most Performed Songs in 2008 for ‘Let it Go’ ft/ Keyshia and Lil’ Kim

FAQs

In Conclusion

Do you know what OG means? It means the Original Gangster, and that’s what Missy is in the world of the rap industry. Not only did she make her own greatest and club bangers, but she has done an incredible job with her writing and producing. 

I respect her so much because she has stayed calm, down to earth, and true to herself even after enormous success and fame. She has every right to declare her talent, and she definitely deserved the place as the first female rapper in the Hall of Fame! Way to go, Mitsy!

Research Citations

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missy_Elliott 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missy_Elliott_discography 
• https://www.nickiswift.com/185992/the-tragic-real-life-story-of-missy-elliott/ 
• https://www.biography.com/musician/missy-elliott#:~:text=Missy%20Elliott%20is%20a%20Grammy,%22%20and%20%22Loose%20Control.%22 
• https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2001/aug/05/life1.lifemagazine7 
• https://wealthygorilla.com/missy-elliott-quotes/ 
• https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top-10-missy-elliott-quotes&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1659460348804226&usg=AOvVaw0TrwYNsS_-yBrNmxXlGXpY