Missy Elliott’s debut song was shot into space

Missy Elliott’s first solo single “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” was relocated to space.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California used its Deep Space Network to transmit the song at the speed of light over a distance of 255 million kilometers from Earth to Venus; the landing took just 14 minutes.

“YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space via the Deep Space Network,” the “Get Ur Freak On” rapper posted to X.

“My song ‘The Rain’ has been officially broadcast to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it is just the beginning,” Elliott wrote.

“Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art were about pushing boundaries,” said Brittany Brown, Digital and Technology Division Director in the NASA Office of Communications, pitchfork“Missy already has experience in bringing space-centric storytelling and futuristic imagery to her music videos, so the opportunity to work on something out of the ordinary is a really good fit for her.”

It was a time of firsts for the hip-hop legend. Before a song had even been sent into space, Elliott became the first female rapper to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, although she always felt it “seemed so unattainable.”

“Words can’t describe it. There was just no spark,” she said last year before the ceremony during an appearance on “Good Morning America.”

The superstar admitted that she owes everything to the women before her, including Queen Latifah.

“She’s someone who, as I said, ‘came before me, opened the door and left it open.’ And I owe so many flowers, bouquets. There are not enough bouquets for the women who came before me. And she’s one of those women,” Elliott said of Latifah.

The “Lose Control” hitmaker said rock’n’roll is like hip-hop in that it encompasses many other genres.

“For me, rock ‘n’ roll is a mix of different styles of music,” Elliott explained.

“I think we have this thing where you have to have a guitar in rock ‘n’ roll,” she said. “It’s like saying hip-hop is just rap, even though we’ve incorporated jazz … (and) blues.”