Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott-Supa Dupa Fly (1997)

 

Artist: Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott

Title: Supa Dupa Fly

Label:The Goldmine Inc./East/West America

Format: CD

Cat #:62062

Year of Release: 1997

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1997

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 3/31/21

Sell Price: $2.99

Discogs Last Sold: 3/23/21 $1.49

Low: $1.00

Median: $3.00

Average: $4.64

High: $21.00 M/NM with hype sticker

Current low price: $1.00 VG+/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 13

Have/Want: 304/80

Where Sold: Derby, CT

Time it took to sell: 10 years

Where and When Bought: mail order used late 97 early 98

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C-

Sad To See It Go: No

A Timbaland production is hard as hell for me to write about, particularly Missy Elliott.  This one was raved about by many many people, but didn't connect with me in some way.   That means this is an "effort" writeup requiring multiple passes to learn the record.    I'll give it a shot.  Many other people will disagree in social media outlet or drunken conversation.

Before the internet, I used to try to keep up with critics records and in 1997 this was a big one.  I  was not above passing out to MTV on the couch, so I was pretty well versed to hits in the 90's like em or not.  "The Rain" I could take or leave at the time, to me her undeniable one is "Get Your Freak On" that came a few years later.  When people were crankin oldies instead of Hot 97 at the warehouse I worked at a couple years ago in the Bronx, that would be in the regular rotation. "Sock It 2 Me" was the bigger Billboard hit on this one and probably the best track here, though I warmed up to "Izzy Izzy Aah.".   I could swear I've heard "Beep Me 911" out and about more than either of these (or maybe on hold somewhere).  

Why did this break through to establishment aestheticians in the 90's that shuttled this by aggregate into the Village Voice Pazz and Jop top 10 (the year of "no next big thing")?  Not as NPR ready as Lauryn Hill, she brought in the Lil' Kim's and Aaliyah's of the world and served it up in a slightly less but ultimately commercial setting.  Tweener feminist rap neither slutty or chanteuse at the crossroads of Hip Hop, R&B and Soul (as Busta Rhymes points out in his closing guest appearance statement).  Missy seems very young on this debut compared to what she grew into.  Still, she beat out the more "mature" Erikah Badu for genre crossover album of the year in the era of Wu Tang and Biggie double cds.

Ultimately, Missy Elliott became a pop singles guest star, having many  American Billboard charting hits after her last album in 2005.  I'm surprised they haven't all been put together on an album, but that is probably a licensing nightmare in both mixtape and Spotify playlist eras.   I gave Supa Dupa Fly a headphone listen off the hard drive and got a dozen tracks in before dozing off.  Had another pass streaming.  Gave it yet another headphone pass and concluded during "I'm Talkin'" that her style AIN'T all that.  

The interpolations are a split.  "Izzy Izzy Aah" is a good response to ODB's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" but "Pass Da Blunt" brings full circle "Pass The Kutchie" by The Mighty Diamonds made popular by Musical Youth's "Pass The Dutchie" in a filler sort've way.   The Dutchie of course is a pan that has nothing to do with weed smoking that Kutchie and Blunts do.   After Missy's 800th tributary to Timbaland I found myself actively cursing Timbaland.  By the time "Why You Hurt Me" gave a moralist lecture to the left of "That Thing", I started to really question why this leapfrogged into Rolling Stone canonizing.  

The Geto Boys were more progressive to freeing mind and ass when they told us you gotta let a ho be a ho.

I knocked Supa Dupa Fly down a whole grade just for that.