Melissa Arnette Elliott^[18] was born on July 1, 1971,^[19] at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Portsmouth, Virginia,^[20][21] the only child of power company dispatcher Patricia and former Marine Ronnie Elliott.^[18][22][23] She grew up in an active church choir family, where singing was a normal part of her youth. At the age of four, she wanted to be a performer, with biographer Veronica A. Davis later writing that she "would sing and perform for her family". In later years, she feared no one would take her seriously because she was always the class clown.^[24]While her father was an active Marine, the family lived in a manufactured home community in Jacksonville, North Carolina.^[24][21] She blossomed during this part of her life, enjoying school for the friendships that she formed even though she had little interest in schoolwork. When her father returned from the Marines, the family moved back to Virginia, where they lived in extreme poverty.^[22]

Life in Virginia saw many hardships, and Elliott has talked about seeing her mother suffer domestic abuse at the hands of her father; she refused to attend sleepovers at her friends' homes out of fear that she would find her mother dead upon returning home.^[25] When she was eight, she was sexually abused by a cousin. In one violent incident, her father dislocated her mother's shoulders; during another, Elliott herself was threatened by her father with a gun.^[25] When Elliott was 14, her mother decided to end the situation and fled with Elliott on the pretext of taking a joyride on a local bus. In reality, the pair had found refuge at a family member's home, where their possessions were stored in a loaded U-Haul truck.^[22] Elliott told her mother that she feared her father would kill them both for leaving.^[24] She later stated, "When we left, my mother realized how strong she was on her own, and it made me strong. It took her leaving her home to be able to realize that."^[22][24] She and her mother lived in the Hodges Ferry neighborhood of Portsmouth,^[21] where Elliott graduated from Manor High School in 1990.^[18] She later said that she occasionally speaks to her father, but has not forgiven him for abusing her mother.^[22][24]

In 1988, Elliott formed an all-women R&B group called Fayze (later renamed Sista)^[26] with friends La'Shawn Shellman, Chonita Coleman, and Radiah Scott.^[27] She was introduced to her neighborhood friend Timothy Mosley (Timbaland)by Melvin Barcliff (Magoo) who was trying to recruit his Dj Timbaland to be the group's producer and began making demo tracks, among them included the 1991 promo "First Move".^[28]Later in 1991, Fayze caught the attention of Jodecimember and producer DeVante Swing^[18] by performing Jodeci songs a cappella for him backstage after one of his group's concerts. In short order, Fayze moved to New York City and signed to Elektra Records through DeVante's Swing Mob imprint and also renaming the group Sista. Sista's debut song was titled "Brand New", which was released in 1993^[29] Elliott took Mosley & Barclif whom DeVante re-christened the duo as Timbaland & Magoo.

All 20-plus members of the Swing Mob—among them future stars such as Ginuwine, Playa, and Tweet^[30]—lived in a single two-story house in New York and were often at work on material both for Jodeci and their own projects.^[23] While Elliott wrote and rapped on Raven-Symoné's 1993 debut single, "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of",^[4] she also contributed, credited and uncredited, to the Jodeci albums Diary of a Mad Band (1993) and The Show, the After Party, the Hotel (1995). Timbaland and DeVante jointly produced a Sista album, entitled 4 All the Sistas Around da World (1994). Though videos were released for the original and remix versions of the single "Brand New", the album was shelved and never released.^[28] One of the group's tracks, "It's Alright" featuring Craig Mack did however make the cut on the soundtrack of the 1995 motion picture Dangerous Minds but by the end of 1995, Swing Mob had folded and many of its members dispersed. Elliott, Timbaland, Magoo, Ginuwine, and Playa remained together and collaborated on each other's records for the rest of the decade as the musical collective The Superfriends.^[31][32][33]

After leaving Swing Mob, Elliott and Timbaland worked together as a songwriting/production team, crafting tracks for acts including SWV, 702, and most notably Aaliyah.^[30] The pair wrote and produced nine tracks for Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million (1996), among them the hit singles "If Your Girl Only Knew", "One in a Million", "Hot Like Fire", and "4 Page Letter".^[29] Elliott contributed background vocals and/or guest raps to nearly all of the tracks on which she and Timbaland worked. One in a Million went double platinum and made stars out of the production duo. Elliott and Timbaland continued to work together for other artists, later creating hits for artists such as Total ("What About Us?"; 1997), Nicole Wray ("Make It Hot"; 1998), and Destiny's Child ("Get on the Bus"; 1998), as well as one final hit for Aaliyah, "I Care 4 U", before her death in 2001. Elliott also wrote the bulk of Total's second and final album Kima, Keisha, and Pam and Nicole Wray's debut Make It Hot (both released in 1998). Elliott began her career as a featured vocalist rapping on Sean "Puffy" Combs's Bad Boy remixes to Gina Thompson's "The Things That You Do", (which had a video featuring cameo appearances by Notorious B.I.G and Puff Daddy), MC Lyte's 1996 hit single "Cold Rock a Party" (backup vocals by Gina Thompson), and New Edition's 1996 single "You Don't Have to Worry". In 1996, Elliott also appeared on the Men of Vizion's remix of "Do Thangz" which was produced by Rodney Jerkins (coincidentally the producer of the original version of "The Things That You Do").