Missy Elliott - She's A B＊＊ch

What this video is

Released in April 1999 as the lead single from Missy Elliott's second album Da Real World (Goldmind Inc./Elektra), 'She's A B**ch' arrived at the apex of late-90s hip-hop's commercial and visual ambition. Produced by Timbaland, the track deploys electro-inflected 808 percussion to frame Elliott's explicit reclamation of a gendered insult as a marker of female strength and self-determination — a rhetorical strategy…

Why it matters

A landmark in hip-hop feminist visual culture, 'She's A B**ch' demonstrated that a rap artist could command a cinematic, concept-driven, multi-million dollar visual language without conforming to prevailing gender norms. It is ranked among Elliott's greatest videos by Billboard (3rd) and among her…

The director

Harold 'Hype' Williams (b. August 1, 1970, Queens, NY) is an American music video and film director widely regarded as the seminal hip-hop video director of the 1990s. He studied film at Adelphi University and began his career as a graffiti artist and…