Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actress. She is a five-time Grammy Award winner with record sales of over seven million in the United States, and is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one double platinum for her 2002 album Under Construction.

Elliott is known for a series of hits and diverse music videos, including "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "Hot Boyz", "Get Ur Freak On", "One Minute Man", "4 My People", "Work It", "Pass That Dutch", and "Lose Control". She has worked extensively as a songwriter and producer for other artists, both alone and with her fellow producer Timbaland, with whom she received her first production credit on R&B singer Ginuwine's 1996's album Ginuwine...the Bachelor.

In the early 1990s, Elliott formed an R&B group, called Fayze, with friends La'Shawn Shellman, Chonita Coleman, and Radiah Scott. While Elliott wrote and rapped on Raven-Symoné's 1993 debut single, "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of", she also contributed songwriting duties, credited and uncredited, to the final two Jodeci albums Diary of a Mad Band and The Show, The After Party, The Hotel. Timbaland and DeVante jointly produced a Sista album, entitled 4 All the Sistas Around da World and completed in 1994.

Elliott and Timbaland worked together as a songwriting/production team, crafting tracks for acts including SWV and 702, but the most notable of them was Aaliyah. Elliott contributed background vocals and/or guest raps to nearly all of the tracks on which she and Timbaland worked. One in a Million went double-platinum and made stars out of the production duo. Elliott and Timbaland continued to work together for other artists, later creating hits for artists such as Total, Nicole Wray and Destiny's Child.

Elliott began her career as a featured vocalist rapping on Sean "Puffy" Combs's Bad Boy remixes to Gina Thompson's "The Things That You Do", MC Lyte's 1996 single "Cold Rock a Party" and New Edition's 1996 single "You Don't Have to Worry." .

Elliott's debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, was released in mid-1997; the success of its lead single "The Rain" led the album to be certified platinum. The success was also a result of the music videos of her single releases which had been directed by Harold "Hype" Williams, who created many groundbreaking hip hop videos at the time. The album was also nominated for Best Rap Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards.

Elliott's second album, Da Real World, was released in 1999 and sold 3 million copies worldwide. It included the singles "All n My Grill", a collaboration with Nicole Wray and Big Boi, a remix to "Hot Boyz" and "She's a Bitch". Also in 1999, Elliott was featured, alongside Da Brat, on the official remix to the popular Mariah Carey single "Heartbreaker".

Missy Elliott next released Miss E… So Addictive in 2001. The album spawned the massive pop and urban hits "One Minute Man", featuring Ludacris and Trina, and "Get Ur Freak On", as well as the international club hit "4 My People". The double music video for "Take Away/4 My People" was released in the fall of 2001, shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the death of Elliott's good friend Aaliyah in August.

Elliott co-produced the Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink cover of "Lady Marmalade" for the Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film album, which went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001. Under Construction

Elliott's fourth album, 2002's Under Construction, included the singles "Work It", Elliott's second biggest hit to date, and the duet with Ludacris, "Gossip Folks". The album is known as the best selling female rap album ever with 2.1 million copies sold in the United States. In 2003, Under Construction received Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Album of the Year.

Early in 2003, Elliott produced the "American Dream Remix" of Madonna's single "American Life". In the summer of 2003, Elliott was the featured rapper on Timbaland & Magoo's long-awaited return single, "Cop That Shit".

Elliott produced "Fighting Temptation" for the soundtrack to the Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles movie The Fighting Temptations.

In November 2003, Elliott's fifth album, This Is Not a Test! was released and feature the singles, "Pass That Dutch" and "I'm Really Hot".Also, Elliott was featured on Wyclef Jean's "Party to Damascus" and Ghostface Killah's "Tush" singles. In 2004, Elliott was featured on Ciara's hit single "1, 2 Step", with her verse interpolating Teena Marie's single, "Square Biz".

Her sixth solo album, The Cookbook was released in July 2005 and debuted at number two on the U.S. charts. Its first single, "Lose Control", which featured Ciara and Fatman Scoop, became a Top 5 hit in the early summer, and the other album tracks featured guest appearances from Mike Jones, Fantasia, M.I.A., Slick Rick, Mary J. Blige, and Pharrell. The video for "Lose Control" garnered Elliott six 2005 MTV VMA award nominations, ultimately winning two awards in the categories Best Dance Video and Best Hip-Hop Video in August 2005. In November 2005, Elliott won Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the 2005 American Music Awards.

In December 2005, Elliott was nominated for five Grammy Awards, including two for "Lose Control", one for The Cookbook, one for writing Fantasia's "Free Yourself"), and one for "1, 2 Step" with Ciara . Elliott was also nominated for Best International Female Artist at the 2006 BRIT Awards.

In early 2006, Elliott's single and video for "We Run This" was released with heavy airplay on VH1, MTV, and BET. It served as the lead single for the soundtrack to the film Stick It. Missy Elliott was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Rap Solo Performance category for "We Run This".

Respect M.E., Elliott's first greatest hits album, was released in September 2006, only in South Africa, Australia, Europe, Japan, and Brazil. The collection became her second top ten album in the UK and her highest charting album to date, peaking at number seven there.

In August 2011, a remix of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" featuring Missy was released and went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the latter era of 2011, Missy produced Monica's lead single "Anything (To Find You)" and "Until It's Gone" for her 2012 album New Life.

Currently, Elliott is due to appear on Timbaland's fourth solo album, Shock Value III and release her seventh album soon.