Videos for singles such as The Rain and Hot Boyz were equally groundbreaking: declining to hide or parody Elliott's bulky frame, they created an entirely new female persona in hip-hop - tough, independent, unconventionally sexy. The stammering, stop-start beats and stabbing orchestral samples now used by everyone from Destiny's Child to Britney Spears were effectively patented by Elliott and her co-producer Timbaland. Her 1997 debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, shifted the sound of hip-hop, R&B and, ultimately, pop music in its wake. In this environment, Missy Elliott's achievements are remarkable. Meanwhile the handful of successful female rappers are marketed either as quirky novelty acts or lingerie-clad eye candy. For all its excitement and innovation, hip-hop is the genre that favoured the world with Slick Rick's Treat Her Like a Prostitute and Snoop Doggy Dogg's jaunty paean to gang rape, Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None). While rock has always been full of risible macho posturing and unthinking sexism, hip-hop is the only form of music that is actively and unrepentantly misogynistic.

It's an unsubtle gag - rappers are seldom noted for the delicacy of their humour - and it masks an uncomfortable truth.

Elliott smith either or torret