As hip-hop celebrated its 50th Birthday over the weekend, legendary Virginia rapper and icon Missy Elliott took to social media to share with her fans the details of how she made her famous ‘Supa Dupa Fly’ music video.
Released as the lead single for her debut album of the same name, the track sampled the 1973 hit ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’ by Ann Peebles. Produced by Timbaland, the song went straight to the top of the charts, and its music video was a sight to behold.
The music video for ‘Supa Dupa Fly’ is instantly recognisable and considered a hip-hop classic. It features cameos from the likes of Diddy, Lil Kim, TLC, YoYo, 702 and others. Missy has always been a star willing to bring others into her realm.
Directed by the legendary Hype Williams, the visual designer Ron Norsworthy curated Missy’s outlandish and creative outfits, including her famous black blow-up trash bag look.
Reflecting on the making of the video, Elliott shared a funny story with fans about the suit, writing, “Fun fact I had to go to a gas station in Brooklyn NY to get air in this blow-up suit & the suit blew up so big I couldn’t fit in the car so I had to walk back to set down the street in this outfit in BROOKLYN. Dem ppl was riding pass like she must be high.”
She continued, “High as a kite. I wonder if anybody from Brooklyn saw me that day walking down the street in that hot-ass suit. If you look at the music video, it had deflated by the time I got back to set, so some scenes, the suit flat after all that walking.”
She finalised by sharing one last fact with fans, posting, “Funfact about the blow-up suit deflating so the first lil clip is after they had to keep blowing the suit up but the second clip you can see the suit deflating but shit we was on a budget so we kept the scenes where the suit was deflated. That was so hood.”