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Missy Elliott: “I don’t think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop.”

We all need a little encouragement from influential people during our careers, especially when it’s only just beginning. Missy Elliott is living proof of what could come from it.

In a new interview on Pharrell Williams‘ Beats 1 show OTHERtone, Elliott revealed that she may not have been where she is today if it weren’t for Puff Daddy. She mentioned that she had once considered giving up on hip-hop to focus on her label, when he intervened.

“I wanted to have a label, and just have artists and do writing and producing,” she said. However, after seeing Puffy at a recording studio, her plans soon changed.

“He said ‘I got this record I want you to hop on’, and I was so nervous,” she revealed, adding that she wanted to do the recording without anyone else in the room. The track was a remix of Gina Thompson The Things You Do, which became one of the hits that helped launch her career.

She laughed, looking back at Puffy’s reaction to her addition of “Hee Hee Hee Hee How”. “Little did I know, that was going to be the tagline every time, like the DJs would always bring that back,” she said.

She couldn’t speak highly enough of Puffy and acknowledged his huge influence in the world of hip-hop. “I don’t think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. He intertwined hip-hop and R&B and he made it so people weren’t intimidated,” she said.

In November last year, Missy Elliott opened up about her anxiety issues and how that impacted on her career. Following her comeback with WTF featuring Pharrell, she went on to win Innovator of the Year at Women In Music. Now we know who we have to thank for that.