Songoftheday 1/16/21 - I was lookin' for affection so I decided to go, swing that up in my direction I'll be outta control...
"Sock It 2 Me" / "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" - Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott featuring Da Brat
from the album Supa Dupa Fly (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from rapper/singer/songwriter/producer Missy Elliott, who came from humble beginnings and a tumultuous childhood in southeastern Virginia, before moving to New York with friend and soon to be longtime collaborator Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley. Missy started as part of an R&B vocal group called Sista, who eventually had a minor R&B hit with "Brand Nu", which went to #84 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart in 1994. But soon enough her fortunes grew with her songwriting and production, as Elliott and Timbaland started to produce and write for a trove of acts in the early 1990s including Aaliyah, for whom broke her away from R. Kelly with her One In A Million album. In 1996, with her clout as a songwriter and producer solid as a rock, Missy was able to create her own imprint under the EastWest Records label. Her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, was released in the summer of 1997, about the time she was already in the pop top ten as a guest on Lil' Kim's hit single "Not Tonight". The lead single from the record, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", wasn't released commercially in the U.S. at first (to goose sales of the album), but the music video featuring Missy cavorting around in what seems like Hefty bags created a huge impression on MTV, and ended up getting her a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance (which Will Smith stole for "Men In Black"). Interpolating the Tina Turner classic "I Can't Stand The Rain", the record skates along with Timbaland's skittish and already easily recognizable production which let the lyrics slide, but it really was all about the music video...
That track hit the R&B Airplay top ten at #6 in August of 1997. Her follow-up from the Supa Dupa Fly album would be released a month later, this time as a CD single which included "The Rain". "Sock It 2 Me", which featured rapper Da Brat, who had also been on "Not Tonight", was written by Elliott, Mosley, and Da Brat based on a sample of the soul nugget "Ready Or Not Here I Come" from the Delfonics, which reached #35 on the pop Hot 100 in 1969 and had already been covered earlier in the year by the Fugees as "Ready Or Not". A much stronger song than "The Rain", which relied more on the sample and percussion, "Sock It 2 Me" has Missy singing about wanting the hook-up with a beat-perfect chorus, and Da Brat gives her most fluid performance on a hit single yet. The music video is even more over the top, putting Missy and Da Brat (and Lil' Kim, their "Not Tonight" lead) in space as they fight robot aliens and dance around to the beat...
"Sock It To Me" became Missy's first official top-40 pop hit on Billboard's pop Hot 100, just missing the top ten in November of 1997. The song also climbed to #4 on their R&B chart, where the single was listed with "The Rain" as a "double-sided" hit since stations were still playing both. Internationally, both tracks reached the top ten in New Zealand ("The Rain" at #10, "Sock It 2 Me" at #5), and the top-40 in the UK (former at #16, latter at #33). The Supa Dupa Fly album went to #3 on the Billboard 200 sales chart in America, going on to move over a million copies. The set was also nominated for Best Rap Album, which went to Puff Daddy for his No Way Out set.
Missy's next track from the album promoted to radio, "Beep Me 911" featuring R&B group 702 and Timbaland's rap partner Magoo, got to #13 on Billboard's R&B Airplay chart, while reaching the top-40 in New Zealand (#13) and the UK (#14). That was followed by "Hit 'Em Wit Da Hee" featuring Lil' Kim and Mocha, which made it to #61 at R&B Airplay, and again making the top-40 in New Zealand (#27) and the UK (#25). Both of these tracks are just as solid as the two that were hits, if not even a step up.
Sock It 2 Me: (8/10) The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly): (7/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
and next up, "The Rain" on the Keenan Ivory Wayans Show the same year...
Up tomorrow: Beantown ska-punkers form an opinion.
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