Music legend Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott’s favorite planet is Venus—so after over 30 years in the industry, it’s only fitting that her debut solo single received a one-way ticket to Earth’s neighbor courtesy of NASA. The agency and the first female hip-hop artist inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame both announced on July 15 that “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” beamed to the planet on July 12 via the 122-feet-wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna in Goldstone, California.
As NASA notes, DSS-13 is also coincidentally nicknamed “Venus.” DSS-13 is part of the agency’s global Deep Space Network (DSN) array, which has been used to communicate with spacecraft for over six decades.
Even traveling at the speed of light, Elliott’s song took nearly 14 minutes to reach the intensely inhospitable planet, although it’s unlikely anyone is there to listen. Orbiting about 67.2 million miles around the Sun, Venus features a dense, carbon dioxide-laden atmosphere, sulphuric acid clouds, an average temperature of 867-degrees Fahrenheit, and surface pressure 92-times that of the Earth’s sea floor. But as the solar system’s only planet named after a goddess, Elliott is drawn more to its historic connotations than its harsh environment.
“[T]he planet… symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment,” she posted to social media on Monday.
NASA has a long history of transmitting songs beyond Earth—to astronauts, other planets, and even beyond the solar system. In 1965, astronauts orbiting the planet in spacecraft listened to a parody of the Broadway tune, “Hello, Dolly!” Meanwhile, Voyager 1 and 2 continue their historic travels into deep space along with matching golden records containing a soundtrack of songs, nature recordings, and human conversations.
DSN’s three equidistant complexes are located around the world approximately 120-degrees apart in longitude in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. This ensures NASA can remain in continuous communication with astronauts as they orbit Earth. But “The Rain” is only the second song ever transmitted by the DSN network. In 2008, NASA beamed “Across the Universe” by The Beatles towards the North Star.
“Artists such as Missy Elliott and the Beatles have had their music beamed into space to inspire humanity to think about Earth’s place in the cosmos,” a DSN spokesman told The New York Times on Tuesday. “And maybe others, if they’re out there to hear it.”
[Related: We finally know why Venus is absolutely radiant.]
Released in 1997, “The Rain” peaked at Number 4 on the Billboard’s “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop” chart. Although the song helped launch Elliott’s solo career after performing in the R&B group, Sista, some critics weren’t receptive to the debut.
“Elliott commits more than a misdemeanor with her first solo single,” Billboard journalist Larry Flick wrote at the time, adding that she “attempts to hide the fact that she was lazy with her own lyrics… The result is a little of her infamous wordplay atop an ineffectual bass, snare, and drum beat. One can only hope that she puts more time and effort into her upcoming album.”
After nearly three decades and a string of multi-platinum hit records and singles, Elliott is now widely considered one of hip-hop’s most creative and talented artists. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked “The Rain” one of its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
“The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning,” Elliott posted to social media on Monday.
