Supa Dupa Fly is released

Why it matters

Supa Dupa Fly came out July 15, 1997, on the Goldmind/East West. It is Missy Elliott's solo debut. She was 25. Timbaland produced almost the entire record. The combination of Missy as MC-and-singer-and-songwriter and Tim as producer would, across the next decade, redefine what commercial American R&B and rap could sound like. The album does not sound like any rap album released before it. Timbaland's production uses negative space, off-time drums, syncopated stutter patterns, and unusual textures (the squeaks, the chirps, the snaps) where most 1997 producers were still going to four-on-the-floor or boom-bap. Missy's voice moves between rapped verses and sung hooks fluidly enough that the categories stop mattering. "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." "Sock It 2 Me." "Beep Me 911." The video for "The Rain," directed by Hype Williams, with Missy in the inflated black trash-bag suit, became one of the most-discussed rap visuals of the year. You can hear the late-90s and early-2000s sound of mainstream Black popular music starting on this album. It then became basically everything for the next decade.