93. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, "Supa Dupa Fly"

 

"Pass the Dutchie" was a 1982 song from British-Jamaican group Musical Youth and if you were anywhere near a TV in 1982 that had MTV on it this song is drilled into your brain forever.  It's enjoying something of a renaissance these days; it was featured on Netflix's Stranger Things, and it's popular on TikTok, one of the many age-inappropriate activities I engage in. 

But back in 1997, Missy Elliott copped it for one of the songs on this album, "Pass da Blunt," which, as its name implies, also concerns smoking marijuana, along with other concerns, such as Missy Elliott's superior musical abilities and the desires of others to have same.  It's also about Timbaland's prowess as a producer, and that's not actually a boast because it's true; the beats on this album are really, really great.

Missy was already an accomplished songwriter for other before dropping this, her first album, in case you're wondering "how could a first album be this good and this polished."  She wrote for Jodeci and Aaliyah and others and had worked extensively with Timbaland, which probably explains why their work together on this album sounds so seamless.  I don't want to sound like a broken record here (nudge nudge, little music joke there) but this album sounds like it took a TON of work but it was recorded in something like two weeks at a studio in Virginia Beach, which was already becoming a hotspot of modern rap.

You probably know "The Rain," the first single, built around a sample of a song by Ann Peebles called, yep, "I Can't Stand the Rain," which came accompanied by a hallucinatory and magnetic video:

90's much?  (The album also has a track called "Beep Me 911," and if you don't know what that means, ask your Mom.)  Anyway, the song and video were good enough to help the album go platinum and put Missy on the map as a performer.  It's a very good album, it's just not my thing, unfortunately.  

Is this album in my personal Top 500? No.