Credit: Alamy

Missy Elliott and Timbaland formed one of the most iconic partnerships in hip-hop history. They combined for albums such as Supa Dupa Fly, Da Real World, Miss E… So Addictive, Under Construction and This Is Not a Test!, resulting in hit singles like ‘Work It’, ‘Get Ur Freak On’, ‘Hot Boyz’ and ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’.

The rapper-producer duo are both from Virginia Beach and met through Timbaland’s longtime collaborator, Magoo, with whom he released three albums. Through a mutual friend, Magoo met Tim, who was more of a DJ than a producer at that point.

“I first met Tim through a guy who is Tim and I’s best friend,” he told Red Bull Music Academy. “His name is Larry Lyons. I met Larry when he came to Chesapeake, Virginia to attend high school. He was from Virginia Beach. Within a month, he started telling me about this guy in Virginia Beach who was a really good DJ, beat boxer, and producer. But at the time, Tim was more well-known for being a DJ.”

Magoo then introduced Timbaland to Missy Elliott after discovering her group, Fayze (later known as Sista), through another friend. He told the collective about Tim, and they were sold the first time they met him.

“I met Tim in 1988 when he was 16 years-old,” he explained. “I met Missy through someone else, too. Initially, Larry, Tim, and I were in a record store. Missy was in a group called Fayze, and they had a record out locally, and it was playing on the radio already. The song was performing pretty well. While I was in the record store, I picked up their record. I was like, ‘We have to meet these girls.’

“About a month later, a guy from my neighbourhood calls me and said, ‘I have Fayze in the car with me.’ So, I get in the car with them, and I started telling them about Tim. We ended up going over to Virginia Beach, and when we got there, they met Tim.”

He continued, “When they met him, they wanted to pick him up as a producer. Unfortunately for the guy who introduced me to them, he was also a producer, but they ended up choosing Tim to work with. This was around 1991 or 1992.”

Sista released one album, 4 All the Sistas Around da World, in 1994. Timbaland produced Missy Elliott’s solo debut, Supa Dupa Fly, three years later. Speaking on the album on X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, she said, “My first album was stress-free because I didn’t have any expectations. My label told me they would give me my own label if I did one album so me and Timbaland completed this album in two weeks, not knowing this would be the beginning of many more to come.”

As for the follow-up, Da Real World, released in 1999, she admitted, “I was so hard on myself and for a while, this was my least favourite, until years later I realised the MASTERPIECE Timbaland and I had created.”