This year Elliot has written hits for Aaliyah, SWV and Total. And she can unrap her talent: she’s currently working on pop songs for Mariah Carey and Brandy. ““I love songwriting and producing,’’ she says, ““because it’s where I make my real money.''
With Naughty By Nature, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and the ubiquitous Puffy Combs all singing memorial songs to dead rappers, Elliot provides some much-needed levity in the rap industry. Rap fans know her for her trademark ““heeheehaw’’ laugh. While Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown hit it big with sexually explicit lyrics, Elliot raps playfully about urban love affairs gone awry. As she sings in her first single, ““The Rain,’’ which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts this summer, ““Chump/I break up with him before he dumps me.''
Born and raised in Portsmouth, Va., 25-year-old Elliot grew up an only child, singing in the church choir. Her new-found success means that she won’t go home to visit her mom until Thanksgiving. Nor has she had time to drive any of her new cars. ““I have the new Lexus,’’ she says, beaming. ““I have the new Mercedes SLK. And the new Mercedes jeep.’’ She is, after all, the woman who can raise entire nightclubs to their feet by rapping her classic line–““Beep, beep/ Who’s got the keys to my jeep?/Vroooom.''
Yet when Elliot shot the video for ““The Rain,’’ she decided not to showcase herself in a fly car, as so many rappers do. Elliot went instead with surrealistic special effects–more Tim Burton than Dr. Dre. ““I like to step out on the edge,’’ Elliot boasts. This week, she debuts the video for ““Sock It to Me,’’ the follow-up single, which casts Missy in outer space and features high-tech Japanese animation. ““That’s how my album is. It’s futuristic,’’ says Elliot. ““I wasn’t trying to make a record for 1997. This one’s for the year 2000.''
