Rolling Stone has named "The Rain" by Missy Elliott as the #1 greatest hip-hop video of all time.

Missy herself retweeted the update, adding this:

Fun fact I had to go to a gas station in Brooklyn NY to get air in this blow up suit & the suit blew up so big I couldn’t fit in the car so I had to walk back to set down the street in this outfit in BROOKLYN. dem ppl was riding pass like she must be high

Here's the full list.

Here's the video.




Here's what Rolling Stone had to say about this video (there is commentary on every selection).

Missy Elliott started her career working behind the scenes as a songwriter for other artists, but the individuality and ingenuity she unveiled in the first of her many Hype Williams linkups allowed the Virginia rapper to become a front-facing, overnight sensation in her own right. The cartoon-like visual introduces what would become hallmarks of Missy’s creative identity: out-of-this-world concepts, women supporting women, and en vogue yet future-forward fashion choices. Per Essence, when Williams asked her for ideas for the video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” she answered simply, “Do everything in the song.” The results flipped the script and brought a new type of bravado to hip-hop.

The track’s onomatopoeic “vroooooom” is illustrated with an effortlessly cool joyride in a 1994 Hummer H1.
Elliott’s friends serve as her video vixens, with rapper Yo-Yo and SWV singer Coko dancing in the fish-eye lens as Misdemeanor references them. The video’s iconic patent-leather blow-up suit put up a proud middle finger to industry standards, worn in spite of her omission from Raven-Symoné’s 1993 music video for “That’s What Little Girls Are Made Of.” “I said ‘I’m-a show them … I’m-a stay my size and have a big record,’” she said during her 2011 Behind the Music episode. It has since become one of hip-hop’s most renowned sartorial staples. Missy’s official step into the spotlight with “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” kicked off a decades-long career of expectations-defying genius, proving that being true to yourself will always be in style.

[Edited 8/10/23 17:38pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

Rolling Stone has named "The Rain" by Missy Elliott as the #1 greatest hip-hop video of all time.

Missy herself retweeted the update, adding this:

Fun fact I had to go to a gas station in Brooklyn NY to get air in this blow up suit & the suit blew up so big I couldn’t fit in the car so I had to walk back to set down the street in this outfit in BROOKLYN. dem ppl was riding pass like she must be high

Here's the angry gran.

Here's the video.




Here's what Rolling Stone had to say about this video (there is commentary on every selection).

Missy Elliott started her career working behind the scenes as a songwriter for other artists, but the individuality and ingenuity she unveiled in the first of her many Hype Williams linkups allowed the Virginia rapper to become a front-facing, overnight sensation in her own right. The cartoon-like visual introduces what would become hallmarks of Missy’s creative identity: out-of-this-world concepts, women supporting women, and en vogue yet future-forward fashion choices. Per Essence, when Williams asked her for ideas for the video for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” she answered simply, “Do everything in the song.” The results flipped the script and brought a new type of bravado to hip-hop.

The track’s onomatopoeic “vroooooom” is illustrated with an effortlessly cool joyride in a 1994 Hummer H1.
Elliott’s friends serve as her video vixens, with rapper Yo-Yo and SWV singer Coko dancing in the fish-eye lens as Misdemeanor references them. The video’s iconic patent-leather blow-up suit put up a proud middle finger to industry standards, worn in spite of her omission from Raven-Symoné’s 1993 music video for “That’s What Little Girls Are Made Of.” “I said ‘I’m-a show them … I’m-a stay my size and have a big record,’” she said during her 2011 Behind the Music episode. It has since become one of hip-hop’s most renowned sartorial staples. Missy’s official step into the spotlight with “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” kicked off a decades-long career of expectations-defying genius, proving that being true to yourself will always be in style.

[Edited 8/10/23 17:38pm]

She is truly a legend and an inspiration for me. I love her music and her style, and I think she deserves all the accolades she gets.

Hype Williams videos were cool but they were kinda samey. Similar gimmicks throughout.

RJOrion said:

Rolling Stone continues to be out of touch and out of their minds, when it comes to hiphop, or black music in general

A quite impactful moment of my youth was thumbing through the new Rolling Stone and seeing them put like every Beatles album in their Top 10 albums of All Time List. Literally just about every single Beatles album...

WhisperingDandelions said:

RJOrion said:

Nonsense...theres hundreds of videos better than that...maybe more

Exactly, this one isn't even good. This was around the time great Hip-hop was steadily becoming a thing of the past with this nonsense crap hip-pop dominating the airwaves.
I blame Puff Daddy, Timbaland and Missy Elliot for the decline of the great Hip-Hop culture.

We all know RS is a bullshit list maker.

Perhaps they put her at the top because of the newness of her style and the video effects or whatever.

Moreover, my post was about her anecdote with the blow up suit. The list can fuck off. She certainly deserves to be on the list in general, tho. Her videos, and some of Busta's, were always up there in pushing what hip-hop videos were.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Hype Williams videos were cool but they were kinda samey. Similar gimmicks throughout.

I was thinking I would love to watch these videos on the gigantic TV screen we have now.

Well, for an artist who had written and produced in an industry that wanted to hide her body size, I thought it was genius to not only feature her body but make it even bigger. Only fat people can appreciate that.

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