“For this album I wrote a lot of catchy hooks,” Missy Elliott said in 1999, of her second album, Da Real World. “They’re hot, but they’re simple.”
Following on from her phenomenally inventive debut, Supa Dupa Fly, Da Real World had to land a sharp Missy-is-back blow, instantly proving that this new album would not loiter in the shadows of her prodigious debut. It did all that, and more. On Da Real World Elliott moved from the Technicolor surrealism of Supa Dupa Fly into darker waters, yet always with that trademark Missy-ness of intellect, flamboyance and futurism. “I named my album Da Real World because I talk about real, real, real topics,” she said.
Listen to ‘Da Real World’ here.
When did Da Real World come out?
Da Real World came out on 22 June 1999 and was developed at a time when Elliott was feeling the pressure to come up with a successful follow-up to 1997’s genre-warping Supa Dupa Fly. “It’s really hard, the sophomore album,” she told MTV. “You try not to get that sophomore jinx.” Early efforts proved fruitless, so she took a step back; consciously avoiding thinking of the songs as being for her second album, she instead tried to treat them as if she were recording another artist.
- Best Missy Elliott Songs: 10 Hip-Hop Classics To Get Ur Freak On To
- Hip-Hop History: From Golden Age To Digital Age, And The Rappers Who Led The Way
- Best Female Rappers: 20 Women In Hip-Hop Who Deserve Recognition
Ultimately, Elliott’s experience helped her overcome her fears. After all, she was no debutante. Although it had felt as though Supa Dupa Fly was a starbeam burst onto the scene, it was in fact the product of a long backroom history. With her very close collaborator Timbaland (who has compared their bond to that of an “old married couple”), Elliott had cut her teeth crafting 90s R&B – notably through writing and producing Aaliyah. Elliott’s production work, as well as her exceptional writing and rapping, is still an underappreciated aspect of her career.
Who wrote the songs on ‘Da Real World’?
Most of the songs on Da Real World were written by Elliott and her collaborator Timbaland, occasionally with guests, such as Lil’ Kim and Eminem, contributing their own raps. Elliott’s penchant for inventing words and weirding-up clichés is obvious from the very outset, with Beat Biters rhyming “boobetti” with “confetti”, and Elliott threatening to “burn a whole club down like I was Carrie”.
