Hi, I'm the Rap Critic. Let's talk about Missy Elliott. Let me preface this episode by saying that I LOVE Missy Elliott. Everything about her persona was awesome. She had the coolest videos, she had the best producer backing her at the time, and she had a fun, cool personality that carried through in all of her music, and when listening to her albums, it's obvious that she loves HipHop and being a musician, and would probably be cool person to hang around.
As well, she made a lane for female rappers who didn't fit the conventionally attractive look. In fact, that may have been part of why she was ALLOWED to be so weird in her videos and stuff: because the focus COULDN'T just be on her sexual appeal; however, as made clear in her lyrics, she was a very sexual person, I mean, she helped write a song directly about female masturbation!
*"Oops (Oh My!)"*
Well, several, actually…
*"Toyz": "Every girl must have a toy"*
I think you see where that's going…
But yeah, now that I think about it, that's a big part of what's to like about her: she openly expressed her sexuality and the different facets thereof, but since she wasn't super skinny, as far as the mainstream was concerned, she HAD to do more than show skin to make an impact. Think about it: you think they'd allow Lil kim to perform in a puffy trash bag? Hell no! But with Missy Misdemeaner Elliott, she could love Old school rap music, she could dress in blown up latex, and she could… be into megaman, apparently, and since lots of people have been comparing her to Nicki Minaj, because, you know, she's the only black female rapper with more than one top ten hit SINCE her, it's hard to not compare, so I decided to look at one of her biggest songs to see what was that spark that made people see her as the untouchable force in HipHop by looking past fashion ideas, music videos and all that stuff, because ultimately that can all be studio managed, no, I concern myself with the part that she was responsible for herself, the raps. So let's look at "Work It", and see how she fairs.
DJ, please pick up your phone
I'm on the request line
Interesting that Timbaland shows up first here, because beatwise, this is one of his pop music masterpieces, weaving cool samples together like the perviously heard intro, and perfectly setting the stage for the old school vibe that Missy was going for on this album. And throughout, Timbaland manages to not only recreate that vibe, but instead of just lazily resting on classic samples, he uses them sparingly, crafting his own new sound in which the samples interact. It's pretty cool.
Is it worth it, let me work it
I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
Okay, what I like about this chorus is how it uses a bit of ambiguity, meaning she could be speaking about sexual positions that she can put down and reverse, like I dunno, cowgirl and reverse cowgirl or something, OR she could be talking about how she lyrically puts it down, representing herself fully as a rapper.
If you got a big ***, let me search you
Well, that's a little... LESS ambiguous…
As well, she made a lane for female rappers who didn't fit the conventionally attractive look. In fact, that may have been part of why she was ALLOWED to be so weird in her videos and stuff: because the focus COULDN'T just be on her sexual appeal; however, as made clear in her lyrics, she was a very sexual person, I mean, she helped write a song directly about female masturbation!
*"Oops (Oh My!)"*
Well, several, actually…
*"Toyz": "Every girl must have a toy"*
I think you see where that's going…
But yeah, now that I think about it, that's a big part of what's to like about her: she openly expressed her sexuality and the different facets thereof, but since she wasn't super skinny, as far as the mainstream was concerned, she HAD to do more than show skin to make an impact. Think about it: you think they'd allow Lil kim to perform in a puffy trash bag? Hell no! But with Missy Misdemeaner Elliott, she could love Old school rap music, she could dress in blown up latex, and she could… be into megaman, apparently, and since lots of people have been comparing her to Nicki Minaj, because, you know, she's the only black female rapper with more than one top ten hit SINCE her, it's hard to not compare, so I decided to look at one of her biggest songs to see what was that spark that made people see her as the untouchable force in HipHop by looking past fashion ideas, music videos and all that stuff, because ultimately that can all be studio managed, no, I concern myself with the part that she was responsible for herself, the raps. So let's look at "Work It", and see how she fairs.
DJ, please pick up your phone
I'm on the request line
Interesting that Timbaland shows up first here, because beatwise, this is one of his pop music masterpieces, weaving cool samples together like the perviously heard intro, and perfectly setting the stage for the old school vibe that Missy was going for on this album. And throughout, Timbaland manages to not only recreate that vibe, but instead of just lazily resting on classic samples, he uses them sparingly, crafting his own new sound in which the samples interact. It's pretty cool.
Is it worth it, let me work it
I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
Okay, what I like about this chorus is how it uses a bit of ambiguity, meaning she could be speaking about sexual positions that she can put down and reverse, like I dunno, cowgirl and reverse cowgirl or something, OR she could be talking about how she lyrically puts it down, representing herself fully as a rapper.
If you got a big ***, let me search you
Well, that's a little... LESS ambiguous…
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