Tragic Details About Missy Elliott
The following article contains descriptions of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
You know her as Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott — but before hitting the big time, Melissa Arnette Elliott was a little girl with massive ambitions. By age 4, Elliott already knew that she was destined to be a superstar. "I never saw anything else, never dreamed of doing anything else," she told The Guardian in 2003. These days, everything she dreamed of has come to pass. Elliott is the only female rapper to have achieved six platinum albums. She's also the music production genius behind chart-toppers like "Lady Marmalade," Whitney Houston's "Oh Yes," and 702's "Where My Girls At?" Plus, she's written songs for numerous other luminaries, including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Ariana Grande.
From her culture-defining music to her innovative style, Missy Elliott continues to reinvent hip-hop. The Grammy winner has influenced an entire generation of performers, and her legacy is unmatched. With so much fame and prestige, it's hard to imagine Missy Elliott's life as anything less than perfect.
But in fact, the rapper has endured numerous tragedies over the years. Despite moments of loss, abuse, and rejection, Missy Elliott is still standing — and she's committed to being a rock for other creative women. "It's important for me to support this next generation because I also came in at a young age, and there's nothing like having that support in someone," the icon told Forbes. "It's very important for me to be a big sister to those coming behind me."
Missy Elliott spent a period of her childhood living in extreme poverty
Missy Elliott's early years were nothing like the extravagant world that she exists in now. Born on July 1, 1971, she was the only child of Ronnie Elliott, a member of the U.S. Marines, and Patricia Elliott, a power company employee. Ronnie's military career uprooted the family from their hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia, but they returned to the area at the end of his service.
Back in their home state, the struggling family settled into a dilapidated shack. In an episode of VH1's "Behind the Music," Elliott opened up about the deplorable living conditions in their home. "I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep," the rapper revealed (via Spin). The family lived without running water and had to use a pot as a makeshift toilet.
Throughout Elliott's childhood, music was a place of refuge and a source of hope. She regularly wrote fan letters to Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, imagining scenarios where her idols would show up and rescue her from her poverty-stricken circumstances. Little did she know that one day, her life would come full circle. In 2022, Portsmouth, Virginia, dedicated a street to the Virginia-born musician. Missy Elliott Boulevard now runs through the very city where her humble beginnings played out.
She was sexually abused
During Ronnie's military service, the family was shuffled to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Young Missy Elliott saw those moments as a turning point — she was thriving intellectually, making friends, and honing her passion for the limelight. "We lived at the end of this road ... and I used to stand at the end of it, singing into a hairbrush," the superstar told Variety. "I would sing about anything: animals, insects, and when cars would come past and honk their horns I would sing louder." Unfortunately, these carefree childhood moments were short-lived. At 8 years old, Elliott experienced an unimaginable trauma when she was sexually abused by a family member.
The abuser was Elliott's 16-year-old cousin, who later died of a drug overdose. Elliott revealed that the sexual abuse happened regularly over the course of a year. At the time, she didn't fully understand what was happening to her. "But I knew something was wrong," she stated during an interview for "Behind the Music" (via Spin). "Being molested ... it don't disappear. You remember it as if it was yesterday."
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
Her father abused her mother
Being victimized at the hands of her cousin wasn't Missy Elliott's only encounter with abuse. Elliott's father beat her mother, Patricia, on a regular basis. The vicious abuse resulted in black eyes, a dislocated arm, and untold amounts of psychological trauma. As time advanced, so did the violence. On one occasion, Ronnie threatened Elliott and her mother with a loaded handgun.
With the help of family members, Elliott and her mother managed to break free from their abuser. Elliott, who was 14 at the time of their escape, told The Guardian, "We left my father with a fork, a spoon, and a blanket. Ooooh, that was the scariest time of my life. I thought he would find us and he would kill us. I lived in fear for a long time." Elliott admitted that their financial dependence on Ronnie made it difficult to leave.
In honor of her mother's courageous decision, she vowed to be successful in the music industry. "I told her I would make it so I could get her out of that situation & I would make sure she'd never have to work again," the Grammy winner tweeted in 2023. "That's what really kept me going."
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
Creativity was an outlet to deal with her difficult childhood
Despite her turbulent home life, Missy Elliott felt safe at school. She wasn't very keen on academics — however, the classroom became her personal performance space. "I always made people laugh, and everybody wanted me to sit at the table with them," the superstar told Interview Magazine in 1999. However, that all changed after Elliott scored in the genius range on an IQ test.
As a result of her high IQ, the reluctant brainiac was forced to skip ahead two grades, leaving behind her friends and her familiar routine. Feeling more lonely and isolated than ever, young Missy ventured inward to find the comfort that she craved. Her bedroom became a hideaway and a place to daydream about the future. Imagination wasn't just a fun pastime for Elliott. In many ways, it was a survival technique.
"My room would become a whole other world once I shut that door ... " the superstar told Billboard. "It was 'Alice in Wonderland': my bed, my closet — it would all turn into something else. And I would write and sing and block out whatever was going on." Elliott's visions would later inspire the surreal worlds that the artist created in her music videos.
She was afraid to pursue a solo career
Missy Elliott's destiny came into view during high school, when she was introduced to a fellow musician named Timothy Zachery Mosley. At the time, Mosley was unknown — but in a few years, he would emerge as powerhouse producer, Timbaland. Their collaboration blossomed immediately. "He had a little Casio keyboard and was just playing around, and I started to sing and then I started to rap ... " Elliott told Variety. "After that, I found myself at his house doing music every day."
Soon, the pair went from afternoon jam sessions to real-life recording booths. In the late 1980s, Elliott joined a four-piece girl group called Sista. The rapper teamed up with Timbaland to create Sista's sound; she was the group's songwriter while Timbaland produced their music.
The ensemble disbanded shortly after releasing their first record, but it was hardly a loss for Elliott and Timbaland. Thanks to their work with Sista, the duo had captured the eye of several industry bigwigs. During this era, Elliott flirted with the idea of going solo — but deep down, the thought terrified her. "I was afraid!" she confessed to Variety. "I love being in a group because the pressure isn't on one person — it probably don't seem like it, but I'm super, super shy. Once I was no longer in the group, instead of being an artist I wanted a record label."
Missy Elliott was told to pursue a behind-the-scenes role
Missy Elliott's career hit an upswing in the early '90s. In 1993, she was hired to cowrite a single for Raven-Symoné called "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of." Elliott also wrote and performed a rap verse for the track. Despite her involvement with the song, Elliott was excluded from the music video, and a slender, light-skinned model was brought in to lip-sync her verse.
It was the first of several times that Elliott would be pushed to the sidelines due to rampant colorism and fatphobia in the music industry. In other instances, record executives told her to pursue a behind-the-scenes career. "They'd broken my heart," Elliott told The Guardian. "They said I could sing, I could write, but that I looked wrong. That was the lowest thing you could say. I didn't forget."
Ultimately, Missy Elliott chose to take the music industry head-on by being unapologetically herself. She doubled down on her iconic brand of racy, feminist lyricism. Through her music videos, she subtly explored themes like Blackness, femininity, and body image. Rather than accepting the status quo, Missy Elliott completely altered the rules of hip-hop. Looking back on the early days of her career, the hitmaker told Interview, "Music is a male-dominated field. Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down."
She wasn't sure if her groundbreaking musical style would ever catch on
Missy Elliott is often praised for being ahead of her time — and for good reason. Between her lyrical prowess and her visionary style, Elliott has never shied away from the unconventional. Shortly after releasing her debut album, "Supa Dupa Fly," she told The New Yorker, "I don't make music or videos for 1997 — I do it for the year 2000."
In addition to her forward-thinking style, the rap legend is also known for her innovative hooks. In 2002, Elliott famously added a gibberish hook to her hit song, "Work It." She later revealed that the iconic hook was actually a fluke caused by malfunctioning studio equipment — but since she liked the way it sounded, she decided to mix it into the song. Thanks to her intuition, Elliott carved out a sound that was uniquely hers.
Despite her musical genius, the superstar had serious doubts that her sound would ever catch on. In a conversation with Billboard, Elliott admitted to feeling anxious while working on Aaliyah's hit song, "One in a Million." "I was scared," the superstar confessed. "I don't know if Tim [Mosley] was scared when we first played it because it was a different sound. It was a different way to attack records because people were really singing then; that world of rap-singing didn't really exist."
She was devastated by Aaliyah's death
By the mid-'90s, Missy Elliott and Timbaland were gaining steam as producers, but their true breakthrough moment came when Aaliyah entered the picture. At the time, Aaliyah was a rising teen superstar with a successful debut album under her belt. Elliott and Timbaland signed on to create one song for Aaliyah's upcoming second album. Once the trio hit the studio, their creative chemistry unfurled. All in all, they ended up making eight new tracks, including the smash hits "4 Page Letter," "If Your Girl Only Knew," and "Hot Like Fire." The subsequent album, "One in a Million," was released in 1996. Thanks to its innovative sound, the record became a multiplatinum sensation.
After the success of their first project, Elliott and Aaliyah became frequent collaborators — but behind the scenes, they were best friends. When Elliott spoke of Aaliyah — whom she often referred to as "Baby Girl" — the rapper described her as her confidant and a little sister.
On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Elliott was heartbroken by the loss. The following year, she wrote in Entertainment Weekly, "Our relationship went beyond the work we did together. We felt we had created a new sound, but it wasn't like we just did records and that was it. It was more of a family vibe than just work. We could tell each other anything. Her death was a huge shock to me."
She lives with an autoimmune condition called Graves' disease
In just under a decade, Missy Elliott churned out six platinum albums, created a slew of chart-toppers, and scooped up four Grammys (not to mention countless other awards) — but after releasing her sixth album in 2005, the hitmaker seemingly retreated from the spotlight.
As it turns out, Elliott's health played a major role in slowing down her solo career. In 2008, the superstar was diagnosed with Graves' disease, an autoimmune condition that causes hyperthyroidism. Her diagnosis came after a cascade of disturbing symptoms that left the rapper unable to drive a car. "It causes hair loss, your eyes bulge," Elliott revealed to Billboard. "My blood pressure was always up from just overworking."
"You live with it for the rest of your life," Elliott told People. However, thanks to radiation treatment and lifestyle changes, the rapper was able to get a handle on her symptoms. In 2011, she shared a health update with USA Today. "I was diagnosed with Graves' disease about three years ago, but it really hasn't slowed me down at all ... " Elliott wrote. "I feel great. Under my doctor's supervision, I've been off medication for about a year and I'm completely managing the condition thru diet and exercise."
She suffered a panic attack ahead of her 2015 Superbowl performance
In 2021, Missy Elliott got real about the pressures of being a high-profile music maker. "People don't understand how hard it is to maintain so many hats: being the artist yourself and then writing or producing for another artist and making sure [the two roles] don't clash," the rapper explained to Variety. Unfortunately, the stress caught up to her in 2015, and the timing couldn't have been worse.
Months earlier, Elliott had received a phone call from pop star Katy Perry. The singer was scheduled to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, and she wanted Elliott to join her onstage. They arranged for Elliott to perform three of her hit songs during the show.
However, as the moment approached, Elliott was overcome with anxiety. She suffered a severe panic attack, which landed her in the hospital just one day before the big performance. Thankfully, the panic attack didn't stop Elliott from putting on a spectacular show. Reflecting on the experience, she told Billboard, "I said, 'If I can get over this step, then I know all my dance steps will be on point.' I know it was nothing but the grace of God that lifted me up and took me through that performance."