Listen to Missy Elliott on Batanga

Since entering the music industry a little over a decade ago, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott has managed to carve her niche in the hip-hop/R&B market. After releasing three of her own albums, along with contributing efforts to a barrage of other artists' albums, she has truly established herself as a pioneer in the music biz.

Melissa Elliott, born in 1972 in Portsmouth, Virginia, grew up as a single child in a broken home. Throughout the earlier years of life, she witnessed her father physically abuse her mother and often times had to retreat to a "better place." In order to do so, she pushed past the boundaries of her own imagination and often envisioned herself as a performer.

Eventually, her mother mustered up enough courage to leave this abusive lifestyle behind and went off to raise Missy on her own. She idolized her mother's courage and independent ways and began to adopt very similar characteristics. Independence and an overabundance of creativity could only lead to one thing: a career in show business.

Missy's first big break came in 1991 when she was signed to the music label Elektra, as part of the group Sista. This seemingly prosperous event was abruptly cut short, however, when their album was never released. Rather than feeling bad for herself, Missy took this opportunity to focus on other possibilities -- most notably flourishing as a producer and writer for other artists on the label.

By sticking around and making a name for herself, she began receiving recognition for her abilities as a talented performer and landed herself a breakthrough cameo on Gina Thompson's single "The Things You Do." Shortly thereafter she was signed once again to Elektra with a production/label deal.

In 1997, Missy created her very own label, Gold Mind Inc., and released her first solo album, Supa Dupa Fly. Her innovative debut knocked hip-hop fans upside their heads and made them sit up and take notice. Enough had finally arrived.

To this day, the album still reigns as one of the highest debuting discs from a female hip-hop star on Billboard's Album chart. Her first released single, "The Rain," put Missy on the map, especially with the help of the supporting music video directed by Hype Williams. The video earned three MTV Video Award nominations.

While working as a producer and writer for many other artists during the two years after the release of her debut, Missy also managed to record her second album, Da Real World. The highly-anticipated effort was released in 1999 much to the approval of her fans worldwide. By taking yet another different and much darker approach, she shocked the world again with an array of hit tracks including "She's A Bitch" and "Hot Boyz." The platinum-plus album was nominated for a Soul Train Award as well as a Grammy, and rightfully so.

Missy's third album, Miss E... So Addictive, released in 2001, has proven to be her biggest and most outrageous effort to date. By jam-packing her tracks with guest cameos from hip-hop's finest, including Jay-Z, Eve, Method Man, Redman, Da Brat and Ludacris, Missy has given hip-hop fans of all kinds something to shake their moneymaker to. While teaming up once again with long-time friend and producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, together the duo have created, quite possibly, their finest collaborative effort yet.

These days, in addition to seeing Missy in her latest video for "One Minute Man" featuring Mr. "Southern Hospitality" himself, Ludacris, she can also be seen guest starring in a number of other artists' videos. After appearing in the MTV award-winning "Lady Marmalade" video (Missy and Rockwilder produced the song), Missy teamed up with Janet in Ms. Jackson's most recent video, "Son of a Gun," and can be seen in a very brief cameo at the end of the Timbaland-produced "Ugly" video by hip-hop's latest great white hope, Bubba Sparxxx.