Supa Dupa Fly

The album was recorded in October 1996 at Master Sound Studios in Virginia Beach, with Timbaland producing every track. Sylvia Rhone, then head of Elektra, had encouraged Elliott to start a solo career. Busta Rhymes opens and closes the record, and the guests include Ginuwine, 702, Magoo, Da Brat, Lil' Kim and Aaliyah. Pitchfork noted that Timbaland and Elliott preferred not to sample, and that when they did it had to be interesting. The Rain samples Ann Peebles, and Pass Da Blunt is partly based on Musical Youth's Pass the Dutchie. The guitar loop of SWV's Can We returns on three tracks.

It entered the Billboard 200 at number three with 129,000 copies in its first week and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was certified platinum on 19 September 1997 and had sold 1.2 million copies in the United States by June 2008. It earned two Grammy nominations, one of them for Best Rap Album. Spin ranked it ninth among its top 20 albums of 1997.

Looking back, the Guardian wrote that it explored where R&B had recently been rather than sounding new or alien, in contrast to the album that followed. Pitchfork's 2018 review noted that some early reviews criticized her writing, and argued that the lyrics were written in AAVE, speaking directly to the audience they came from. Rolling Stone ranked it number 93 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums.