Missy in a giant inflated garbage-bag suit shot with a fisheye lens — a radical rejection of the 'video vixen' aesthetic that defined female hip-hop imagery. The deliberately unflattering look was a power move: her talent would speak for itself.
The cover shows Missy Elliott wearing a giant, inflated black garbage-bag suit — a puffer-style garment blown up to enormous proportions, making her body look like a human balloon. The photograph was shot with a fisheye lens, further distorting her already distorted figure. The background is minimal, and the overall effect is simultaneously comic, menacing, and revolutionary.
The inflatable suit was created for the music video for "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," directed by Hype Williams, and became the defining image of Missy's visual identity. Williams, the most influential hip-hop video director of the 1990s (known for his use of fisheye lenses, metallic color palettes, and surreal staging), created a visual world for Missy that was unlike anything in hip-hop.
The suit was a radical statement about the female body in hip-hop. In 1997, female rappers and R&B singers were expected to present themselves in sexually explicit imagery — the era was dominated by the "video vixen" aesthetic, with female bodies displayed for the male gaze. Missy's suit rejected this entirely. It obscured her body completely, making her look enormous, shapeless, and deliberately unflattering by conventional standards. The message was clear: she was not going to compete on those terms. Her talent — as a rapper, songwriter, producer, and creative visionary — would speak for itself.
This was not a defensive or self-conscious choice. Missy has spoken about her decision with characteristic confidence, framing it not as hiding her body but as demonstrating that a woman in hip-hop could define her own visual terms. The fisheye distortion added to this: it was as if conventional ways of seeing female bodies couldn't contain or categorize her.
Missy was already a respected songwriter before her solo debut, having written hits for Aaliyah, SWV, and others in collaboration with her creative partner Timbaland. Supa Dupa Fly was produced almost entirely by Timbaland, whose innovative, sample-heavy, rhythmically complex production was as revolutionary as Missy's visual presentation. Together, they created one of the most forward-looking debut albums in hip-hop history.
The inflatable suit look was reimagined and referenced throughout Missy's career and by other artists. When Missy performed at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards — her first major performance in years — she wore an updated version of the suit, acknowledging its iconic status.
The cover remains one of the most radical visual statements in hip-hop history. It redefined what a female hip-hop artist could look like and proved that rejecting sexual objectification was not a career-limiting move but a power move. Missy went on to become one of the best-selling female rappers of all time, win Grammy Awards, and be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The inflatable suit is now a piece of cultural history, referenced in fashion, art, and music as a symbol of creative independence and female empowerment.
Each of these covers represents a moment where visual art and music fused into something greater than either alone — a single image that could capture the spirit of an entire artistic vision and, in many cases, reshape culture itself.