When Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott was ready to record her first debut album, she made sure to reach out and call in favors from around the hip-hop world.
Featuring current R&B favorites like songstress Aaliyah and hip-hop rapper Busta Rhymes, "Supa Dupa Fly" should have been the next R&B bomb, detonating with its strong artillery of the best personalities in the business. However, what listeners receive is an album soft on inventiveness and strong on name recognition.
"Supa Dupa Fly," which bills itself as the musical equivalent to the 1970s pimp and blaxploitation hero, Super Fly, lacks its cinematic counterpart's unique originality.
Although there has been considerable buzz surrounding her first cut from the album, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," Elliott never seems to outperform or even match this track. With its hooky bass line and the humming-for-days mantra, "The Rain" became popular partly from its run on Music Television and Elliott's well-crafted video.
Released several weeks ahead of the album, "The Rain" promised us a rapper-cum-singer who could entertain with craftily designed lyrics and rhythms. However, with the arrival of "Supa Dupa Fly," listeners find "The Rain" was probably a diamond in the rough, a track designed to accomodate Elliott's 15 minutes of stardom. "The Rain" is one of only four tracks on the album which does not feature other artists.
Break beats and samples provide the landscape for the rest of Elliott's latest release. Different artists fade in and out with their featured tracks which highlight their respective musical signatures.
R&B singer, Ginuwine, rings in with his tenor vibrato on the track, "Friendly Skies." Elliott surprisingly sings on this song rather than rap. Billed as a singer and rapper, Elliott has been likened to Lauryn Hill of the Fugees,who also doubles as a singer and hip-hop artist.
"Izzy Izzy Ahh" is the only track from the album which will disqualify Elliott from one-hit wonder status. A traveling bass line and Elliott's unique rapping style complement each other. Elliott's best tracks on the album are when she is featured alone.
A riff from Mary J. Blige's "Love without a Limit" serves as the foundation for "Gettaway." A sample plays under the lyric: "See I'm writing rhymes/writing rhymes every day/don't you say no more/you don't want to battle." Aaliyah's top 10 hit "One in a Million" is spoofed toward the song's end.
Elliott shows considerable promise as a singer and rapper and she also bylines as a co-executive producer on this album. However, as hip-hop moves closer and closer to what's danceable and further away from lyrics and production, Elliott has a long way to go before she becomes hip-hop's "Supa Dupa Fly." First, she must learn that a good album is based on ingenuity and secondly, that she can do badly by herself.
