Credit: Netflix

Missy Elliot stepped into public view in the summer of 1997, releasing her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, to rave reviews and great popular interest.

Produced by Timbaland, the album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 and hit number one on the R&B and hip-hop albums chart. The record produced some big singles, too, including ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),’ ‘Sock It 2 Me,’ ‘Hit Em wit da Hee’ and ‘Beep Me 911.’ Out of all of those songs, lead single ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ is probably the most enduring and recognisable one today, but, weirdly, it didn’t actually chart in the Billboard Hot 100 at the time. For all of the success that the album attracted, its lead single was, in a strange way, found to be lacking.

This is not to say that the song was not hugely popular, because it most certainly was. ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ was actually a big hit on the radio and on MTV, and it could be heard a lot in the weeks and years after its release. But it did miss out on entering the Billboard Hot 100, which is sort of a rite of passage for America’s most popular songs. To be denied the honour of making that list must have been, at the very least, a bit irritating for Missy, especially considering how popular the song actually was.

The reason the song was omitted is, frankly, fairly mundane for anyone who isn’t a massive nerd for understanding how the pop charts have historically worked. But, that notwithstanding, let’s have a look at what happened. Basically, the song was disqualified on a technicality that had to do with a change to the music industry that was taking place at the time. Neither Missy nor her fans had any power over the situation.

Before the 1990s, it was very common for record labels to sell singles to consumers. But, as the decade progressed, that became less and less common. Increasingly, only radio stations would be sent singles by the labels, meaning that, if customers wanted to own a copy of an artist’s hit song, they needed to buy the whole album that it had been lifted from. That’s hardly an earth-shattering innovation, but it was a change that caught Billboard off balance. Its rulebook couldn’t keep up.

As per Billboard rules at the time, a song could only be included on the Hot 100 if it was commercially available as a single. If consumers couldn’t actually go out and buy it, then it wasn’t eligible. That’s what happened here. ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ fell afoul of the rule, so it was never allowed to chart on the Hot 100.

Frustratingly for Missy, the rule wasn’t even imposed consistently, because it wasn’t a requirement for a song to be eligible for the R&B and Hip-Hop songs chart. ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),’ in fact, got to number four on that chart, which illustrated how out-of-date the rule for the Hot 100 really was.

In any case, it wasn’t long for this world. Not long after ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ had been prevented from entering the Hot 100, Billboard revised the rule. That, maybe, was frustrating for Missy Elliot, but her career was unhampered in any case. Now that little saga is just a footnote in the ever evolving story of the music charts.