Why Missy Elliott makes money from Bad Bunny’s music: ”Now we are here”
Supa Dupa Fly creator Missy Elliott was one of the most prevalent female MCs of the 2000s. Since her retirement, she has received numerous accolades for her contribution to hip-hop. From the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award to her induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, the culture has bestowed several honours upon her.
That said, despite her supposed absence, the Grammy-award-winning rapper has been very active behind the scenes since the 2010s, most notably in the realm of songwriting. Furthermore, due to sampling, she is still making vast amounts of money from her 20-year-old hits. However, it still came as a shock to fans when Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny paid tribute to Elliott’s artistry.
In 2020, Bad Bunny released his sophomore project YHLQMDLG, a trap and reggaetón album that showed the Latin artist’s success was far from a fluke and one of the most beloved songs from the body of work was ‘Safaera’ — a tribute to old-school 2000s reggaetón that saw the singer collaborate with Boricuas, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow.
The hit track was produced by the prolific Puerto Rican producer and songwriter Tainy, and, for the song’s infectious instrumental, the beatmaker sampled Elliott’s 2001 hit ‘Get Ur Freak On’ and Bob Marley’s beloved song ‘Could You Be Loved.’
‘Safaera’ wasn’t released as a single, but it was most definitely a fan favourite from the album. In March 2022, the reggaetón production duo Jowell & Randy, who also worked on the track, spoke to the popular Latin YouTube channel Molusco TV about the sample’s clearance, unveiling that Elliott requested millions of dollars in copyright after the song was released without clearing the sample with her.
However, Elliott’s request meant that the song’s main contributors, Bad Bunny, Jowell & Randy, and Ñengo Flow, were only left with 1% of the song’s profits. Jowell was upset at the Under Construction creator and took to social media to air his grievances about her outsize portion of the song’s royalties. Elliott herself then responded to clarify just how her royalties are processed.
Taking to X, Elliott wrote, “Sadly, you mislead all these people to make them think I have 99%. Now, I don’t talk business online because that’s messy, but now we are here. I have 25%, and there is six other samples and 15 other writers on this one song. They got percentage also.”
Jowell responded to Elliott with nothing but respect for her, writing, “Missy, something got lost in translation cuz I never said you take 99%. I’m cool with my 1%. Excuse me, nothing but love from Puerto Rico to you.”
Elliott was happy that she and Jowell cleared the air, concluding, “I’m glad that you now mention that there are many other samples/writers on this track that got their percentages that you hadn’t named. We both in the music business and know how we must clear someone else’s work.”