Music Monday | Missy Elliott

Howdy!

When I was thinking about doing the series, I know I wanted to keep it diverse, not because my love of music is all of the place, but it is very important to say that there are women music producers out there. In fact, I decided to talk about two of them that I knew were important to my life and musical journey. However, if you know and love of any other women producers out there, please tell me about them in the comments. I would love to learn more about why you adore them, and of course check out their music too!

A couple of years ago, Missy Elliott was awarded by MTV’s VMAs (Video Music Awards) with the Lifetime Achievement award. Back when MTV did play hours and hours (boy, do I miss those days!) of music videos, you probably saw one or if you were really lucky two Missy Elliott videos within 20-30 minutes of each other. I’d say from 1998 to 2004 is when she was just creating all kinds of stuff. A lot of them included dancing, but she was very known for her crazy antics and style in those days. They all looked fun every single time they appeared on your television screen. I’m sad to say I haven’t seen any of her previous videos, but remembering her others, I know she would continue going down that way for as long as she is allowed.

Missy is most known for her songs and friendship with Timbaland and Aaliyah, but I think it’s important to say that she has worked with all kinds of acts throughout the years! In 2004, when the R&B artist Ciara appeared, especially after watching her first music video for “Goodies” you probably hoped that she’d work with Missy one day. Dancing played a big part in the two artists, but it also just seemed like a great combination because Ciara has that same soft voice that Aaliyah was known for–even though nobody could ever be as good as her–you still hoped that they would work together. So, by the time “1, 2, Step” came out on the radio, it was like the music gods were really hearing our prayers and then it happened again in 2004 with Missy’s track “Lose Control” with Fatman Scoop. It was an awesome sequel to the story of these two big female singers.

Since we’re on the subject of girl power, I think we should discuss the remake of Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” of the film Moulin Rouge in early 2002. Instead of having one singer do the entire song, she produced and worked with four powerhouses of the popular genres of that time. You had the R&B artist Mya to start off and then we move on to Pink, who at the time was a mixture of pop-R&B at the time. Brooklyn’s own Queen rapper Lil’ Kim lended a nice section and gave the song an added flare, and finally Christina Aguilera graced us at the end. I still think this is where she began weaning herself out of the cookie cutter bubblegum pop music. The song itself went on to win lots of awards but I think a lot of people either don’t know and/or forget that Missy Elliott was a huge part of making this happen. I mean, think of it as like the first time The Avengers assembled. Yes, I just did that and I’m not even sorry about it either!

Are you a fan of Missy Elliott? Do you have a favorite music video from over the years? Is there any other artists that you think she should consider working or maybe not collaborating with next? Please give me your thoughts about that down in the comments.

It Pays To Look Again

Well, my sister has been officially at her college for a week. This time last weekend, we were saying our goodbyes. Now this weekend she’ll be coming home and I am getting very happy! It’s so strange to not have her walk in and out of my room a hundred times to use the laptop. It’s also weird to go by her room in the mornings and the door is closed and know she’s not even in there sleeping, she’s gone to her classes instead. I’m still proud of my sister. I don’t remember much of the time I spent almost four months in St. Louis, for when I had my surgeries. I know she was worried about me and missed me, but I don’t remember much of that time about being away from her most of the time. I was probably feeling the same but I had so many distractions around me at that time that nobody knew it. Since she’s been gone, I have been listening to both Country music and Rap music off and on for the last seven days. I even watched a Behind The Music on VH1 yesterday afternoon of a rapper that I had liked WAY back. All that did was make me want to listen to the two albums I have of his and it’s been weird to listen to them and remember the joy of buying them at Wal-Mart.

Today, I was waken up by two things, a motorcycle riffing up and our dog ChiChi barking her head off. Any chance of sleeping in until noon went right out the door. I finally sat up an hour later and hooked up my mini speakers into the laptop and jammed out to get my body awake. Within a half hour later, my dad comes walking in and asks me if we have anymore blank CDs. I had no idea because I don’t normally use them anymore and I didn’t know how many CDs my mom has made since the second of August. He found one blank CD and had me make him a copy for a family friend. Honestly I was happy to do this for not him but myself too, because I needed to update my iPod and take out a lot of songs I no longer listen to and add some songs that I’ll probably listen to once and that’s it. I was in the middle of putting songs on my iPod and I found one album of an artist, but I couldn’t find the other one. I looked everything, but no luck. Well, I finally gave up and went into my room and grabbed it out of my massive CD case. I have WAY too many CDs–Did I just say that out loud? Trying to get out of my room with a CD glued to my pinkie toe was not the best thing to do. I ended up running into my desk, door (about five times), my bed, my fan (twice) and to top everything off I even ran over both of my remotes. Luckily, I didn’t break or drop anything. When I finally went back in there I opened the CD drive and realized I should probably check one last time. I looked once more and there it was, the damn CD I wanted. I just did all that work for nothing, but then again if it wasn’t in there then I would have done a good thing. I downloaded everything and found I was missing a song that I have forgotten about and it’s been YEARS since I’ve listened to it. So I told myself the next time I go to update my iPod that song is being added. It’s already checked and ready too.

So I’ve just heard that not only is N’Sync coming back tonight on the VMAs (Video Music Awards) but so is DANITY KANE! I am so overjoyed it’s unbelievable! I’m so glad the girls are coming back and did you see their new picture too? They look beautiful and fierce! I definitely have anymore excuses not to watch it tonight. However, it kind of sucks that most of the music that is nominateed isn’t what I listen to on a daily basis. Granted I do love Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, but that’s mostly it. Thankfully metal is too raw to go mainstream. Even though I do get excited to see both Linkin Park get played on the “pop” stations every once in a while. By the way, do you remember this song?