You might know Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott as the woman inside the absurdly enormous jumpsuit in the surreal video for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" or for her guest raps and trademark "hee hees" on hits by SWV ("Can We"), MC Lyte ("Cold Rock a Party") and Gina Thompson ("The Things You Do"). But for the past two years, Elliott has also been getting plenty of recognition as the behind-the-scenes songwriter who has penned hits for Jodeci, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, 702 and Total.
\\On her smooth ride of a debut album, "Supa Dupa Fly," Elliott does it all -- songwriting, singing, rapping and co-producing with Timbaland, a longtime friend from her hometown of Portsmouth, Va. But even though the album has flown to the top of the chart, Elliott has stayed busy pursuing her wide range of talents. In the last month alone, she has written songs for Brandy and LSG (the Gerald Levert-Keith Sweat-Johnny Gill supergroup), collaborated on a song with Mariah Carey, appeared in videos for Aaliyah and Total and shot the video for the second single ("Sock It 2 Me") from her own album. During the first weeks her album was on the chart, Elliott took some time out from her busy schedule to talk about Lil' Kim, writing hits in 20 minutes and dressing up in inflatable clothing.
\\Hype Williams' video for "The Rain" is attracting a lot of attention. How was it to wear that big, black, inflated patent-leather suit?
\\It was crazy. You have to think about being pumped up full of air at a gas station and having to walk down the street, and you're, like, at least 400 pounds. It might not look that big on TV, but it really was about that big. It took 25 minutes to get in it and 25 minutes to get out of it. It was very hot in there because it was extremely tight around the wrists and the ankles, to keep all the air trapped inside.
\\You really went to a gas station to pump it up? Didn't they have a pump on the set of the video?
\\They did, but I had to go to the gas station first. And then I was too big to get in a car, so I had to walk to the set.
\\You were walking down the street looking like a big rubber ball?
\\Yeah, people was looking -- they wouldn't say anything but you could tell in their faces they were like, "What in the world is going on?"
\\Most female artists go out of their way to look sexy and glamorous in their videos. What made you decide to dress up in what looks like a huge Hefty bag?
\\I'm cutting edge, so I don't mind taking a chance and doing something different. Besides, I most definitely feel like you don't have to be 5'6" and a size 2 or that you got to be light-skinned with long hair to be beautiful. I feel my personality is beautiful, so that should make up for the outside.
\\"The Rain" is built on the Ann Peebles song "I Can't Stand the Rain." Is that something your mother used to listen to?
\\No, my mother's very religious, so I doubt she would know that song. I heard it when Timbaland was playing some old CDs when we was in the studio. I liked the beat on it, and I was like, "Oh, man we got to use that. We *got* to use that."
\\Your lyrics portray a tamer image of women, than, say, Lil' Kim's do. What do you think of her rhymes?
\\I love Kim. I don't have a problem with what Kim says because I believe a lot of girls feel that way. She's just expressing it. But we're so used to not being free to say what we want that when somebody does it, it seems so vulgar. But people think like that. It's real. Me personally, I don't come off like that, but I don't have a problem with listening to it. And if I had to say that I had any competition, it would be Kim, as far as the way we rap. Her delivery is so ill. I love the way she rhyme and she love the way I rhyme, so instead of it being a negativity thing, it's more like we compliment each other, and it makes us work harder.
\\How long did it take you to record your album?
\\Most of it was done in a week, but it took an extra week to get Da Brat and Busta and them down to do their parts.
\\That's fast! Did you write the songs before you went in to record?
\\No, we created right there. I write on the spot. It's a God-given talent, I guess. I just hear the track and then feel something and then write it.
\\So how long does it take you to write a song?
\\Roughly 20 minutes.
\\A lot of hip-hop tracks are built on loops from yesterday's hits. Why do you and Timbaland write your own hooks?
\\To me, that's not showing your creativity or originality, because you're only making a hit out of something that was already a hit. We used the Ann Peebles song, but I don't have a bunch of samples on the rest of my album. Some people just take the whole loop and don't do anything with it. But we took a piece of it and broke it up and added our flavor into it. We just try to take it somewhere else. The music me and Timbaland make is futuristic. It doesn't sound like anything's that's on the radio now,
