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<\/p>\nDecades before\u00a0Missy Elliott considered\u00a0herself “the definition of Avant Garde” on Twitter, her innovative\u00a0“Miss E… So Addictive” set precedent for the title.<\/p>\n
“People not gon’\u00a0really know what to categorize this album,” Elliott said of “So Addictive” in an interview with E! News\u00a0when it released. “It’s an album for everybody.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my case, it’s the common-ground album that my parents and I can agree to listen to on family road trips.\u00a0Its eclectic sounds, syncopated rhythms and interrupting adlibs (“Is that your chick?”) provide a safe\u00a0middle ground for miles of multigenerational listening, the perfect bridge between one audience who likes\u00a0Megan Thee Stallion and Billie Eilish and another who prefers 1970s George Clinton and\u00a0Parliament funk.<\/p>\n
The palate-pleasing qualities of Elliott’s music goes beyond a family car. It is\u00a0displayed with the undefinable experimentation of\u00a0her\u00a0third studio album “Miss E… So Addictive.” The 2001 project crafted by\u00a0Elliott and\u00a0producer Timbaland includes funky bass, sitar plucks, and orchestral horns that push the genre-blending envelope with each song.<\/p>\n
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Missy Elliott performs at the 2018 Essence Festival at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Saturday, July 7, 2018, in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris\/Invision\/AP) ORG XMIT: LABB110 (Photo: Amy Harris, Amy Harris\/Invision\/AP)<\/span><\/p>\n The eclectic tracklist hopscotches from chart-topping hits like “Get Ur Freak On” and “One Minute Man feat. Ludacris” to inspired collaborations with rappers\u00a0Method Man and Redman (“Dog in Heat”) and\u00a0gospel singer Yolanda Adams (“Higher Ground”).<\/p>\n Longtime entertainment journalist Michael Musto interviewed Elliott in 1999 after the release of her sophomore project “Da Real World” and said she showed “star power” long before she premiered “So Addictive.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “I thought she had the assurance of somebody who had arrived,” Musto says of the Virginia-born rapper and songwriter. “It already felt like ‘this is a seasoned artist’ off her second album.”<\/strong><\/p>\n Her third album catapulted her into the upper echelons of the music industry.\u00a0The\u00a018-track album\u00a0peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 43 weeks. A little more than two months after its release, “So Addictive” went platinum.<\/p>\n Elliott’s first two solo Grammys were housed within “So Addictive.” During the 44th annual ceremony\u00a0she knocked out her all-male competition and won\u00a0best rap solo performance for “Get Ur Freak On.”\u00a0A\u00a0year later at the 45th awards, the album’s sixth track,\u00a0“Screaming a.k.a Itching,” won\u00a0best female rap solo performance.<\/p>\n Missy Elliott took home her first solo Grammy for "Get Ur Freak On" during the 44th annual Grammy Awards. She also won a trophy for best pop collaboration with vocals for "Lady Marmalade" which she wrote and produced. (Photo: Reed Saxon, AP)<\/span><\/p>\n The set of BET’s “106 & Park” experienced the TV premiere of “Get Ur Freak On.” Former hip-hop journalist Marc Weingarten was there when the world got it’s first look at a video full of celebrity cameos,\u00a0a repulsive spit take, ghostly painted dancers and the female emcee dressed in a denim vest with rhinestones arranged in a paisley pattern (the heavy 2000s lip liner and gloss combo was also in effect).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “People flipped out on it.” Weingarten says. “Being a cynical journalist I was like, ‘Well OK you know, this is what they’re supposed to do’.”\u00a0<\/p>\n His cynicism was crushed after finding out that the standing ovation the “Get Ur Freak On” video received was not TV magic.\u00a0Weingarten\u00a0says it was “completely spontaneous” and was the first standing ovation “106 & Park” ever saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I was like ‘OK she is completely taking this in a new direction,’ ” he says.\u00a0“The audience that day at ‘106,’ they got it right away.” \u00a0<\/p>\n Videos like “Get Ur Freak On” along with the future visuals that would come\u00a0from songs\u00a0like “Work It” and “Pass That Dutch” landed Elliott the\u00a0VMAs’ career-achievement Video Vanguard Award in 2019.\u00a0The creativity in her songwriting and production skills crowned her as the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame that same year. Albums like “Miss E… So Addictive” are what will keep her fans compelled (and my family road trips fight-free) for decades to come.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/05\/12\/USAT\/d7b441a3-f6b6-4252-9461-e9a15306ff8b-AP_Music_Missy_Elliott.JPG\")
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