On July 15, 1997, rapper Missy Elliott released her debut album Supa Dupa Fly, which catapulted to the No. 3 position on the Billboard 200 chart. The album has 17 tracks including “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” which landed on the airwaves on May 20, 1997, before the album’s release.
Now, 27 years after the song was first heard on radio stations, it’s making another debut — this time in deep space. As reported by NASA, the transmission occurred on July 12 at 10:05am PDT via the Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN is the world’s largest telecommunications system, consisting of massive radio antennas used in space missions.
NASA pitched the idea to Elliott, who agreed to the rare opportunity. Director Brittany Brown from NASA’s Digital and Technology Division explained why the rapper was chosen for the project. She said Elliot’s art has always pushed boundaries, much like space exploration.
“Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”
The song traveled to Venus
“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” traveled 158 million miles to Venus, Elliott’s favorite planet. The transmission was sent via the Deep Space Station 13 radio dish antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, and it took about 14 minutes for the song to reach Venus. Elliott took to X to share the news with her followers.
“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” is the first hip-hop song to be transmitted into deep space, and only the second to be beamed. The first was The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” which was transmitted on Feb. 4, 2008. The date was a double celebration, as it was NASA’s 50th founding anniversary and 40 years since the song was recorded.
Elliott just kicked off her first-ever headlining tour — “Out of This World: Missy Elliott Experience — early this month.