Missy Elliott was one of the most successful female rappers in hip-hop for a long time and was female rap’s mainstay during the late 1990s and 2000s. Not only did the rapper (real name Melissa Elliott) win a multitude of Grammys during her tenure, but she also became the first woman ever to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. With humble beginnings, rising to prominence by the side of Timbaland, Elliott was a product of Portsmouth, Virginia.
Raised as an only child by her mother, Elliott lived in the Hodges Ferry neighbourhood of Portsmouth, a suburb of the larger Virginia city of Norfolk, where she met Timbaland. Together, they became part of the local crew Swing Mob. However, her career would not begin properly until her departure from the collective with her producer friend.
Becoming inseparable, the two continued to make music and ended up writing and producing for R’n’B acts, such as Aaliyah, SWV and Total. However, wanting to be at the forefront, in 1997, Elliott released her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, and from there her career skyrocketed. Elliott’s first album would spawn her a top 20 hit, ‘Sock It 2 Me’. The album landed at number three on the Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting debut LP for a female rapper. Continuing to work alongside her good friend, Elliot would release her second record, Da Real World, in 1999, and by 2000, the album was quickly certified platinum by the RIAA.
Like any celebrity who achieves such success, Elliott came across a lot of money along the way. And, having come from nothing, this gave her the means to buy and drive high-end, luxury cars. The kind she could only dream of before. That said, unlike other artists, when the musician finally decided to purchase one of these automobiles it didn’t end well.
While in LA, Elliott splashed out on a Lamborghini ‘Diablo’ (an exclusive model of which there were only 40) and in 2001 had it transported from her extravagant pad in California back to her quieter home in Virginia. However, according to publicly available police records, as soon as it landed in Virginia, Joseph Thomas Johnson who worked for the company that transported the Lamborghini, took it out for a late night joyride.
Unfortunately, Johnson couldn’t handle the speed of the car and crashed Elliott’s big spend into a stop sign, then a tree, and clumsily rammed the curb for good measure. The damage caused by Johnson was reported as $170,000. Fortunately, no one was injured, but Johnson was rightly arrested not long after the incident. Elliott subsequently had to file a lawsuit against Johnson as the car was worth $450,000. The courier was tried and convicted. Furthermore, although Virginia state law guidelines suggested that for such a crime the felon get sentenced to 18 months, the stringent judge out of respect for the prosecutors gave Johnson a 3-year prison sentence in 2003.
Irrespective of the fact she didn’t have the fancy car in her videos, Elliott never stopped releasing quality music and continued to receive critical acclaim. In 2019, Missy became a recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and due to her gift, in 2023, she now has a net worth of approximately $50 million. Below you can watch a video of Elliott on MTV Cribs showing off her lime green Lamborghini ‘Murcielago’.
