Missy Elliott Recalls Walking to a Gas Station in Inflatable Suit From ‘The Rain’ Video: ‘We Was On a Budget’
Missy Elliott took a moment to reflect on one of her most iconic videos, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” this week, revealing that she encountered a bit of a mishap after the inflatable suit she wore in the video was blown up to its large size.
“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,” Elliott wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in response to Rolling Stone ranking the clip at No. 1 on the list of the 150 best hip-hop videos of all time. “Dem ppl was riding pass like she must be high.”
Elliott shared some behind-the-scenes footage from the video set, which showed her — with help from her team — trying to make a quick dash wearing the shiny black ensemble. “High as a kite…I wonder if anybody from Brooklyn saw me that day walking down the street in that hot ass suit. If you look at the music video it had deflated by the time I got back to set so some scenes the suit flat after all that walking.”
The suit proved to be cumbersome to keep inflated — “but sh– we was on a budget so we kept the scenes where the the suit was deflated…that was so hood.”
The video and the inflatable suit were well worth the trouble. Following the track’s release, “The Rain,” along with single “Sock It 2 Me,” peaked at No. 4 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and put Elliott on the musical map.
Revisit the music video for Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and see her recollections below.
Starr Bowenbank
Billboard
