“I know that some people shy away from what I say. They think it is too blunt, but when you don’t give people that, they feel like you are being fake and you’re not telling the truth. So it’s like, you want me to tell the truth, but when I do, it’s too much for you.”
― Missy Elliott
“Rule number one in negotiating anything with Missy is never try and run me over. Never push me, because I am a very strong woman. I’m nice, but I’m very strong. When it gets down gritty, I can get grittier. Never, ever underestimate me.”
― Missy Elliott
“I believe that tracks speak to me. Some tracks make me write certain music or make me feel sad or inspire me to write a sad love song. Each track has its feeling to me.”
― Missy Elliott
“Me personally, I don’t ask too much, but I do ask Him to continue to bless me successfully, financially, and just to keep me humble.”
― Missy Elliott
“I know how domestic violence can affect a family, and I want to do everything I can to stop it from happening to others. The most important thing we can do is teach kids that they can break the cycle.”
― Missy Elliott
“I don’t want to be oh-so-brag-about-it, but ‘The Rain’ is hot.”
― Missy Elliott
“When you are creating to the magnitude that I try to create, your brain is like a computer, and you need to refresh.”
― Missy Elliott
“Everybody is doing the same old thing.”
― Missy Elliott
“I want kids of this generation to see that everything is cool, that there’s some kind of unity in hip-hop. We all found something that’s really important to us, and music is all we’ve really got.”
― Missy Elliott
“If you believe a black cat is bad luck, people think you’re crazy, but plenty of times, if I see a black cat down my street, I turn around and go the other way. Even if I’m late. I’ll be late for the airport and be in a limo, and if I see a black cat, I’ll be like, ‘Sir, you have to turn around and go down the next street.’”
― Missy Elliott
“I always feel the need to work as if I don’t have a deal, because that’s what’s going to keep me around for a long time.”
― Missy Elliott
“No, because I don’t want to hear what’s hot and feel I have to copy it. I’ll just make up my own thing.”
― Missy Elliott
“You have to be ready to sing and perform at any time.”
― Missy Elliott
“Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down.”
― Missy Elliott
“My imagination is so far out there already. People couldn’t imagine what goes on in my brain.”
― Missy Elliott
“We’re told that to be fly, you gotta have a fly car, the rims on your wheels, the fly jewels, and that to work a regular job and make legal money is uncool.”
― Missy Elliott
“I was very disturbed to find that a few people were angry at my weight loss.”
― Missy Elliott
“It feels different…. When hip-hop was beginning for me, people weren’t making the kind of money that they make now. It was for the love of doing it and having fun with it.”
― Missy Elliott
“All of the trials and tribulations from personal to the artist. It shows that I’m human. People see the glamorous stuff, but they don’t see the background.”
― Missy Elliott
“I never drank water. Always soda. I didn’t use to like water, but I’ve had to train myself to drink it.”
― Missy Elliott
“When I create something, it’s got to be special, and it can’t just be to throw something out there because I feel like I’m Missy.”
― Missy Elliott
“I mean, when it’s time to rhyme rhyme, I can get down for mine.”
― Missy Elliott
“No, I’m a flirtatious person; I’ll flirt all day long, but it really is hard to get into that when I’m so into the music, and I’m in the studio all day long and all night sometimes. That’s not an exaggeration.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’ve learnt to be happy by myself.”
― Missy Elliott
“I wasn’t born a superstar.”
― Missy Elliott
“What my home life is like now is great.”
― Missy Elliott
“I love my mother. She’s my first love. She has been through a lot and is a sole survivor.”
― Missy Elliott
“When I first started out in the music industry and went to Elektra Records, I didn’t go to be an artist, I went to get a record label started. And they said in order to have a label deal, I had to be an artist – so that’s what I did.”
― Missy Elliott
“Seeing my mother become very strong and very independent had a huge impact on me.”
― Missy Elliott
“Its funny, because for females in general – not just in music, but the corporate ladder as well – anything we do has always been harder for us. When it comes to music, the industry wants you to conform, to look like this and to sound like this and do this or that. It makes it harder. It’s harder for us to come out and be bosses and lead the pack.”
― Missy Elliott
“I think it’s hard for Aaliyah to be duplicated, because she had her own lane.”
― Missy Elliott
“I felt like, ‘How do I fit in’? I’m battling. But then I never fit in!’… I thank God for somebody like Pharrell who stayed in my ear. For him, at that time, ‘Happy’ was everywhere; he didn’t have to share anything with me.”
― Missy Elliott
“The reason I stay home more is because I realise that my blood pressure started going up.”
― Missy Elliott
“Before Missy, there was no comparison to what Missy was doing.”
― Missy Elliott
“A lot of times, I walk down the street and listen to people argue, and then I write a song about it.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’ve always had a lot of creative impact on the music with Timbaland.”
― Missy Elliott
“It’s just that back then we didn’t know that was considered being a coproducer. I would sit on the side and say what I wanted musically, but at the time we thought if you aren’t the one playing it, you don’t get the credit. Now you’ll start seeing my name listed as producer.”
― Missy Elliott
“Hip-hop is definitely not what it used to be, which was creative, original music.”
― Missy Elliott
“Now everybody’s sampling.”
― Missy Elliott
“When it comes to size, most people don’t want to see themselves looking bigger than what they are.”
― Missy Elliott
“I want to be cutting-edge.”
― Missy Elliott
“I want to make something commercial that people can pick up on.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’m not tryin’ to come off as the best lyricist.”
― Missy Elliott
“I want people to feel the heat while they walk down the street and they’re just kickin’ it.”
― Missy Elliott
“Music should be your escape.”
― Missy Elliott
“When you turn on your radio, you don’t always want to hear about someone shootin’ some person. Even if that’s the lifestyle they live, people don’t always want to hear it.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’m not a person that’s walkin’ down the street looking mean all day.”
― Missy Elliott
“My Struggles is a record close to me. It’s about what I went through at home living with an abusive father.”
― Missy Elliott
“I got a mother who’s very strong after taking the whippings that she took from my father.”
― Missy Elliott
“And basically I always said when I was little that if I ever became successful or a celebrity, I would buy her this huge house and she would never have to work anymore. And I’ve done that. So I feel happy about doing that.”
― Missy Elliott
“My first love is writing and producing. So I sometimes put my own stuff off to work on other people’s projects.”
― Missy Elliott
“The double chin’s not good for the red carpet.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’d stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans.”
― Missy Elliott
“I am very scared of wasps; my cousin was stung in the eye once.”
― Missy Elliott
“I used to put all my doll babies on my bed with their hands up and I would do full shows for them. I’d even do the screaming and clapping. I was bugging to be a singer.”
― Missy Elliott
“I didn’t want to be a genius! That ain’t cool.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’m blessed to be living this dream of writing and singing, but that’s not the real dream I had. The real dream was to make enough money to take care of all the pain and suffering that my mother has been through.”
― Missy Elliott
“I remember, in school, writing Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson and asking them to come get me out of class. I would imagine them running down the hall and asking my teacher, ‘Ms. Daniels, can we get Missy out of class? We’re here to see Missy.’”
― Missy Elliott
“Music is a male-dominated field.”
― Missy Elliott
“I ain’t no icon. It’s people like Patti LaBelle, somebody like that’s an icon. I’m just Missy. I’m just crazy, that’s all.”
― Missy Elliott
“I have to respect her family, and until they come and say, ‘We’re ready to do an Aaliyah album,’ then I don’t really want to come and try to get into that because that’s very sensitive.”
― Missy Elliott
“I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep.”
― Missy Elliott
“Maybe I should find myself one of those sexy British soccer stars. David Beckham is hot. But I’ve got a hell of a lot of competition.”
― Missy Elliott
“The person I eventually find will have to like me and my style.”
― Missy Elliott
“You don’t make any money being an artist. Writing and producing? You get your money from that. You live comfortable.”
― Missy Elliott
“The fun part of being an entertainer is that you call up Six Flags, and you say, ‘I’m coming,’ and you get to get on all the rides before everyone. I hate standing in line.”
― Missy Elliott
“Especially when the expectations become so high of you, you always remember the last record that might have been really successful, and you’re trying to outdo that or trying to make something that does not sound like the last record.”
― Missy Elliott
“I talked about my father being abusive to my mother – people have never heard me talk about anything like that. That brings people a little bit more personal with Missy.”
― Missy Elliott
“You get people who rap about stuff that they don’t do all day long. Half those guys, you hear them on the radio, and then you meet them, and you’re like, ‘Wow. They’re so sweet.’”
― Missy Elliott
“My father was very abusive, and it was hard for my mother at first to leave because we had depended on him for so long. Sometimes you kind of get adjusted to getting that beating.”
― Missy Elliott
“I try not to be cruel to people. I know there’s a karma, and I’m constantly thinking of my blessings. I live and die by being a Baptist. If I can’t go to church on a Sunday, I’ll get a tape by the Clark Sisters and slide it in for the day.”
― Missy Elliott
“I most definitely want kids, but I’ll probably adopt kids.”
― Missy Elliott
“I do Dance Dance Revolution. I’m not as good as the little kids that come in the arcade. Their little feet go crazy fast. I’m not that fast, but I’m good on it!”
― Missy Elliott
“It could be hectic sometimes when you’re being an artist and running a label at the same time. But there are times when you just have to say that this my time period to work on my stuff, and then you say this is the time to concentrate on my artists.”
― Missy Elliott
“No matter what I’m doing for myself or someone else, I’m constantly writing and working on other people’s albums.”
― Missy Elliott
“I think it’s being innovative and very creative to stay away from flat-out sampling somebody else’s record. To me, that doesn’t show too much of your creative side unless you take a little piece and add it, almost like spice on a chicken.”
― Missy Elliott
“A lot of people don’t know that before the artist, I wanted to be a writer and producer. That’s always been a love of mine. Its easy for me to do it on myself, but it’s fun to create for someone else.”
― Missy Elliott
“I got caught up in doing records for other artists. I just stayed behind the scenes, and time just kinda passed.”
― Missy Elliott
“I felt like, ‘How do I fit in?’ But then I never fit in. The whole time, I’ve never fit in.”
― Missy Elliott
“He was like, ‘I want to get in the studio with you.’ Who turns down Pharrell?”
― Missy Elliott
“What I love about Kanye is that he doesn’t fit the mould either. He does what he feels.”
― Missy Elliott
“I don’t just throw out microwave records.”
― Missy Elliott
“Things happen in your life, and then you can write something else instead of the same three topics – like, how many times can we write about the clubs?”
― Missy Elliott
“My mother helped me to be who I am: to have strength and not to let people run all over me and yet to be humble; to realise that all of this that I have today could be gone.”
― Missy Elliott
“I go out and date people, but I don’t have that relationship, where you know, I’m like Jennifer Lopez, like I’m going to get married.”
― Missy Elliott
“I got to feel like what I’m giving the fans is 100 percent and that it’s game-changing.”
― Missy Elliott
“If I wanted to do ‘The Missing Files of Missy Elliott,’ I have probably six albums just sitting there.”
― Missy Elliott
“I never record in front of anybody.”
― Missy Elliott
“People are quick to be like, ‘You’re irrelevant. You’re a flop; you’re washed up.’”
― Missy Elliott
“I was always feisty, always that kid that would be on the porch with a hairbrush singing or rapping.”
― Missy Elliott
“I got more shy as I got older and realized people could be laughing at me or judging me.”
― Missy Elliott
“When I first started in the business, I spent so much! Staying in a Trump Hotel for two years, spending eight Gs a month just living.”
― Missy Elliott
“Lil’ Kim is my sister, known her for years, and I’ll never turn my back on her, but there is enough room for everybody. I want to see everybody get it.”
― Missy Elliott
“I love to see women just have on their own, and you watch the guys do it all the time. They go out on the road with each other – probably don’t even like each other, but they going to get that money.”
― Missy Elliott
“I couldn’t write because my nervous system was so bad – I couldn’t even use a pen.”
― Missy Elliott
“Before, you only had one Public Enemy and one Rakim and one Salt ‘N’ Pepa. Now, people have got the formula, and some of them are just doing it for the cheque. It’s kind of watered down.”
― Missy Elliott
“I can’t complain. I think when you get to a certain point, you shouldn’t complain because there’s so many people who would kill to get to this point.”
― Missy Elliott
“I don’t want to get caught up and be an artist always on the go. Because once you do that, it’s hard to get into the studio and do what I do.”
― Missy Elliott
“I still represent for overweight adults and kids, but I am also now painfully and personally aware of the health issues.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’d stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans. People would roll down their windows saying, ‘Isn’t she cute’. I had a vivid imagination. I always pretended it was some big stage.”
― Missy Elliott
“I think Aaliyah has influenced artists like a Ciara.”
― Missy Elliott
“If you got talent, you just have to do you.”
― Missy Elliott
“I always have been an entertainer, whether it’s been joking or performing for people. And I always thought I had a talent, because I could rap and I could sing, and I did write. And all the other kids were going to college, but I just felt like I had to do this first, and if it didn’t work, then I would go to college.”
― Missy Elliott
“When I’m in the studio, I like to be in there by myself because if I’m in the mike room, and I look out and see people talking, or they’re not nodding their head or rocking to the music, it makes me feel like it don’t sound good, or I’ll be scared to really open up vocally because I might mess up, and they might be in there laughing.”
― Missy Elliott
“I didn’t want to just be an artist and let someone else have all that control over me. I knew I would have to produce.”
― Missy Elliott
“I feel like, O.K., if I can make it as a singer, then let me try rapping. If I can make it as a rapper, then let me try writing. All right? If I make it as a rap singer and writer, then why not try to produce? I don’t feel limited in any way.”
― Missy Elliott
“There’s that saying: ‘God gave you talent, and if you don’t use it He’ll take it away from you.’ And I always said, ‘I don’t want God to come down and take my talents away.’ So, by using all these talents and being successful in all of them, I’ve always got something to fall back on.”
― Missy Elliott
“I don’t think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. Because he intertwined hip-hop and R&B so that people weren’t intimidated.”
― Missy Elliott
“Breaking news: there is only one Missy.”
― Missy Elliott
“I guess my friends probably think I’m one of the lamest when it comes to doing stuff.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’ll stay in my house and watch ‘Lockup,’ the prison show.”
― Missy Elliott
“I’ve only ever had two vacations in my whole career, and I’ve been in the industry over twenty-something years!”
― Missy Elliott
“I hear a lot of influence from me and Timbaland’s whole sound in a lot of records of today. But if you have classics like that, then I’m sure you gotta expect that it’s gonna influence some people. So, I’m fine with that.”
― Missy Elliott
“When you think of Missy, you can’t say, ‘Missy reminded me of someone else.’ There was no Missy comparison before.”
― Missy Elliott
“When something is so hot, I don’t want to just jump on it right away. I want to take it home and make sure I give it my best shot.”
― Missy Elliott
“I never stopped recording, but I went through a period where… The one thing that a lot of people don’t know is that for as long as I’ve been as artist, I’ve been a writer and a producer.”
― Missy Elliott
“A lot of people don’t do this. You can count on a couple of hands probably how many artists also produce and write, both for themselves and for others, and are able to be successful at both things.”
― Missy Elliott
“My blood pressure was always up from just overworking.”
― Missy Elliott
“A lot of people don’t know a lot of records that I’ve written or produced, so that’s a highlight for me as a woman.”
― Missy Elliott
“I always said if a man would have done half the records that I’ve done, we would know about it. But we don’t know all the records I’ve done for other artists.”
― Missy Elliott
“I want to dip my foot in some acting. And most definitely want to mentor upcoming artists and give them the wisdom that was given to me.”
― Missy Elliott
“Left Eye is a a rare gem.”
― Missy Elliott
“’Soul Train’ means so much to me.”
― Missy Elliott
“I still go on YouTube and watch the old performances and the ‘Soul Train’ lines. I’m still amazed by how much soul and funk the music and dancers had.”
― Missy Elliott
“Don Cornelius was a genius. He created a show where he was breaking artists’ songs. If you were on his show, he made the consumer want to go out and purchase your music. He will be greatly missed. If they ever try to recreate what he did, it has to been done right, authentic and real with soul! That’s what Don displayed.”
― Missy Elliott
“I still don’t want no broke dude! I’m open to offers, but he’s got to be stable. I see a lot of friends who feel they have to be with a man, but they always pick the wrong one. Are there any right ones?”
― Missy Elliott
“Music is a male-dominated field. Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down.”
― Missy Elliott
“If I’m paying people, and they’re not handling my business right, I have to check them. ‘Cause sometimes you’re nice, and people don’t jump on what they’re supposed to do, but if you go in there screaming at everybody – ‘Look, why aren’t my posters up?’ or ‘Why wasn’t my single out on this day?’ – then they jump right on it.”
― Missy Elliott
“If anybody calls me a female Quincy Jones, that’s way, way complimentary. That’s something I’ll cherish for life.”
― Missy Elliott
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