Aliens could be listening to Missy Elliott’s ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’
As far as we know, Earth is the only planet stupid enough to keep blasting signals into outer space, and last week we did it again. Hopefully, the aliens don’t see a Missy Elliott anthem as an invitation to launch a full-scale invasion.
According to the ‘dark forest hypothesis,’ the universe could be filled with alien civilizations, but they all stay silent and undetectable, in case they’re found and destroyed by another race of hostile aliens.
Audaciously, Earth have no intention of keeping silent. On July 12, NASA beamed a hip hop song into outer space for the very first time. Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” travelled around 158 million miles from Earth to Venus, traversing the distance in just under 14 minutes via the space agency’s Deep Space Network (DSN).
“YOOO this is crazy!” wrote the rapper in an Instagram post celebrating the success of the mission. “We just went #OutOfThisWorld with NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network. My song ‘The Rain’ has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus.”
According to NASA, The stars above and on Earth aligned as an inspirational message and lyrics from the song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” by hip-hop artist Missy Elliott were beamed to Venus via NASA’s DSN (Deep Space Network). The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California sent the transmission at 10:05 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 12.
Why Venus? Because it’s Missy’s favorite planet, of course. “[It] symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment,” she adds. “The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning.”
Her debut solo single from 1997 isn’t the first song humanity has transmitted to the cosmos, for the listening pleasure of any undiscovered intelligent life forms. All the way back in 2008, NASA also used the DSN to beam the aptly-named Beatles track “Across the Universe” toward the North Star.
The DSN itself is made up of various giant radio antennas and has been used to communicate with spacecraft and receive scientific data from the moon and beyond. Its usage predates Missy Elliott’s career by about 30 years, but “The Rain” is only the second song – and first hip hop track – to pass through the system on its way to the stars.
“Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries,” says Brittany Brown, the director at NASA’s Washington headquarters who initially pitched the idea to Missy’s team. “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.”
Produced by Timbaland, Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” from her debut album Supa Dupa Fly marked her emergence as a major player in hip-hop and R&B. It debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 129,000 copies sold in the first week released, becoming the highest debut for a female rapper at the time, and topped the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
The track’s innovative production by Timbaland and its unique music video directed by Hype Williams left a lasting impact on the music industry, establishing Elliott as a creative force and setting the stage for her successful career.
As the largest and most sensitive telecommunication service of NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, DSN has an array of giant radio antennas that allow missions to track, send commands, and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond. To date, the system has transmitted only one other song into space, making the transmission of Elliott’s song a first for hip-hop and NASA.
The song traveled about 158 million miles (254 million kilometers) from Earth to Venus — the artist’s favorite planet. Transmitted at the speed of light, the radio frequency signal took nearly 14 minutes to reach the planet. The transmission was made by the 34-meter (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, near Barstow in California. Coincidentally, the DSS-13 also is nicknamed Venus.