She Can't Stand The Rain: How Missy Elliott and Martha Graham Created Their Own Lanes

If you know me personally, you know how much I will sing the praises of Missy Elliott. Although she came into the hip-hop scene right around the time I was born, she has shaped my life-and many others- with her music.  Missy released an EP earlier this month and has been making music as long as I have been alive.  Missy is one of the few artists that has truly outlasted, challenged, transformed, and revolutionized the music industry. I see her very much paralleling Martha Graham, in that they both, in Missy's words "created their own lane".

Missy, Martha, and the Frontier 

Both Missy and Martha completely broke their respective domains. I feel that this is rooted in the Frontier: the geographical West for Martha and the Millenium for Missy. From her trips to the Southwest and exploration of native cultures, Martha created imagery and concepts that were brand new for New Yorkers. Missy created new beats, sounds, rhythms, and videos that looked and sounded nothing like what was on the radio and TV at the time. Their creative products had absolutely no semblance to their colleagues in their fields. Their creative products are never the same either. Each performance, song, and music video stands alone. The brand new imagery in Martha's sets, costumes, and choreography itself was neither aesthetically pleasing nor decadent like the ballets of the time. They were simple, weird, and sometimes off-putting. So to with Missy. Missy's music video for The Rain, most noticeably and iconically features her in a fat suit that literally looks like a garbage bag. Missy noted that the Black Michelin Woman is her way of being unapologetically herself, exaggerating the fact that she already defies the beauty standards of her contemporaries, first by being a woman, and second by being an "entertainer with weight on them". To this day, both Martha and Missy's work stand on its own. They have influenced many, but nothing comes close to the lanes they created.

Isolation and the Creative Process 

Martha and Missy approach and are located in their respective domains and fields in a similar way. I see their creative process as being mediated by their existence both performers and creators. Missy balanced being a producer and rapper while Martha balanced being a dancer and choreographer. In a way, this was out of necessity. They both did something so completely new and unique that in order to establish themselves in a meaningful way they had to be in charge of all aspects of their creativity. She's a Bitch, Missy says, is all about that. Women have to be bitches to create in the field and get what they want. They make lots of sacrifices. Martha says "I made up the dances for the sake of dancing. I had no desire to be a choreographer. I had to do so for money reasons".

This makes Missy and Martha isolated. Missy notes that isolation in her childhood allowed to create an imaginary world where her sounds, beats, and imagery derive. "I just don't think regular. The videos, they are just how my mind is". Sexual abuse as a child ushered in that isolation, and she said she very much took a risk showing that isolation to the world. Her creative process and products are a coping mechanism and allowed her to reclaim herself and her body. She's a Bitch, Missy says, is all about the reclamation. In a more recent interview before accepting her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, Missy describes intentionally isolating herself; "I try to stay away from radio and TV a lot. I feel like, if you want to be creative, you can't be out in it because then you are going to be afraid to try anything new. Anything different will sound wrong to you".

For Martha, her notebooks express this isolation. Her notebooks are the "space" that she developed her works, much like Missy's room and mind (275). Gardner speculates that the conveying of emotions and concepts in her dances, happened alone, in front of the mirror (276). She even cut people or idea off when she was done with them (281). She rarely collaborated on dances for choreography purposes. Martha is much more of a collector than Missy, but Missy says that she is highly influenced by gospel music and the topics covered in R&B. 

Neither Martha or Missy strive to be understood and that is what I love about them both. Both have had long careers and impacted their fields today. They stand alone, but to our benefit. They put their things down, flipped it and reversed it and we are all better for it.

-Lauren Morrissey

Resources

https://youtu.be/YjOi7WrSJbM
https://youtu.be/HUhJm5vri8o
https://youtu.be/yCEdAWbXS7I
Creating Minds by Howard Gardner, Chapter 8