Missy Elliott - DripDemeanor

feat. Sum1

While the whole music world seems to focus all its attention on Kanye West’s new album/movie Jesus is King, I want to talk about other news on a big figure in the rap world.

Missy Elliott’s success

Missy Elliott has been doing music for more than 20 years now. Rapper, songwriter, producer for her own music, she also worked with big figures such as Timberland, and some famous artists such as Whitney Houston. In other words, she doesn’t have anything to prove. The importance of her contribution to the Hip Hop genre has recently been recognized by the  Berklee College of Music which gave her, along with Justin Timberlake and Alex Lacamoire, a Honorary Doctorate Degrees.

Recently, Missy released the video of the song DripDemeanor, from her new album Iconology (, where she appears in featuring with Sum1)

DripDemeanor video: “Missy classic” but not extraordinary

I would say that the clip is quite “Missy classic”. She, being at the center of the frame with a group of dancers behind her is not really exceptional for the music industry in general. I think what is proper to Missy is her dress style, which in her videos is always original and fashionable. There are different costumes, but the main style is a really tight jumpsuit in leather, with chains. Missy Elliott’s themes mainly talk about women empowerment, body positivity, and sexuality altogether. Missy claims the hyper sexualization of the costumes and choreography, especially since the song is all about sex.

A surprising end

Although I enjoy the song, I didn’t really like the video, which in my opinion is not as successful as She’s A B**ch  or The Rain. I would not have talked about this clip if it wasn’t for the end, at the 4’08” minute.

We get to see a sophisticated woman explaining the portrait of “the Queen of the Queen” to a little girl. Similarly to for The Carter, art is once again used to establish the authority of an artist, but approached differently in this context.

First of all, let’s agree that Missy was queen before Beyoncé, and is actually one of those who opened up/cleared the way for the generation of women singer after her.

Now that has been said, the context is different because in an imaginary museum, in white space with only three paintings recognizable: Missy’s portrait, the scream Edward munch and a Pollock. The portrait remind me of a mix between conquerants and royal portraits because the face is represented in profile, with royal attributes more or less re-actualized: the crown, the strass costumes and the golds jewelries.

I am not quite sure of the meaning of the others paintings, but it could simply be the representation of some of the most famous and parodied paintings in Art History.

Or does it simply symbolize the interest of Missy for the painting? What do you think?