Miss E... So Addictive

The cover of Miss E... So Addictive is a portrait of Missy Elliott. The Source, looking back on the record, noted that she "sported a more glamorous look along with a new hair do" for the sleeve.

That restraint was a choice. By 2001 Missy Elliott was known as one of the most inventive image makers in pop, the rapper who had worn an inflated plastic suit and filmed herself in fish-eye distortion. On the sleeve of her third album she chose a glamorous portrait. The title promised a drug, and the photograph sells the star herself as the habit, polished and direct, with the playful strangeness held back for the records inside. The music, led by the single "Get Ur Freak On", pushed further into club rhythms and global sounds than anything she had made before, and the glossy cover gave that ambition a confident public face.

The album became one of the defining hip-hop records of its year and carried Missy Elliott further into the mainstream. Its cover is less discussed than her videos, yet it marks the moment she presented herself as a headline pop star on her own terms. Miss E... So Addictive was released on 15 May 2001.