Missy Elliott - Under Construction

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• ELLIOTT MISSY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Music reviews of Under Construction

Music Review: ...But Not a Classic
Rating: 5 Stars

Rapping, ironically enough, was never Missy's strong suit, but the way she manipulates slurs, accents, stutters, rhymes, and syllables makes her flow simple but fresh and as innovative as Timbaland's beats. "Funky Fresh Dressed" finds her rhyming words with "necessary" for 40 seconds. Sure, not every line-ending word works as a rhyme, but Missy's slurs, which at times shrink her verbal skills down to the mispronunciations of a toddler, string together every word into spit that runs perfectly over the staggered percussion production. Similarly, the beat from "Slide," which melds climb-up static bass, whining jazz guitars, and a woodblock on the offbeat, runs perfectly under Missy's voice patterns. This time, every line drops a seemingly random Missy sound, like a sort of hip-hop onomatopoeia, from her should-be-patented "Ooh, ooh!" to feline growls which counterpart the DMX barks that have defined male gangsta rap for almost a decade now.

In accordance with that attitude of stepping up to cocky male rappers, Missy interrupts the music a few times to preach her attitudes; she apologizes for her raunchiness (which needs no apology), she comments on giving props to the old school, and she gives Michael Jackson his piece, but most importantly she justifies her sexed-up ideas with the thought that male rappers who have limited the game to hoes and pimping are basically asking for a female to step up and vocalize their sex. "Work It," the obvious argument for female sexuality, is complemented by "Bring the Pain," a reworking of the Method Man classic that features Missy's naughty mouth straight from "...So Addictive"'s "Dog in Heat," and also by "Pussycat," an innocent R&B beat hiding lyrics that reflect the conscious of a female: "P*ssy don't fail me now/I gotta turn this n*gga out." And while these songs are dirty, Missy doesn't fall into a pattern of overdoing the nasty, much like her partner in crime Timbaland let Magoo do on his 2003 release, "Under Construction, pt. II." In fact, some of Missy's best songs come out when she drops lines about something entirely different.

"Back in the Day" is probably the best example of this. Over clock-tick percussion and stair climbing guitars, Missy sings an ode to old school, taking the soulful Tweet along for the ride. This morphs into a political cry, though, for when Jay-Z takes the mic he rocks it like Ice Cube, who he conveniently namedrops about a fourth of the way through his rally. The most blunt lines here are the best, such as the seeming war cry for rap seconded by Ludacris on his own "Chicken `N Beer": "F*ck Chuck Phillips and Bill O'Reilly." "Hot" and "Gossip Folks," on the other hand, let Missy lick shots for a little while, something she is inherently good at. "Hot" plays with funky bongos and staggering snare hits, and actually draws up the blueprint for much of the easy but futuristic hip-hop on "This is Not a Test!" "Go to the Floor," the album's opener, is a great transition between albums; it milks the "...So Addictive" dance theme, being based on the dance floor, but it introduces the slick electro-sonic beats that Timbaland focuses on throughout "Under Construction." This beat mixes the "Get Ur Freak On" fast-paced bongo rolls with fuzzy bass lines, perfectly modeling Tim's goal. And while these Missy raps sting, her R&B efforts are wonderful as well.

"Ain't that Funny" is the model for Kelis's "Milkshake"; mixing sultry singing with heavy-static synth horns, it is probably the most creative beat on the album. "Nothing Out There For Me," which was produced and written by Missy, is a wordplay between the melodious Beyoncé and the partying Missy, the latter who wants her friend to come to a club, the former who wants to stay home with her man. Sounding more like gospel hip-hop than Tim's beats, it gives a unique perspective on Missy's abilities sans-Timbaland (which she modeled further with the Monica smash "So Gone" in 2003). "Can You Hear Me" is a beautiful ode to Lisa Lopes and Aaliyah, a much better album ender than the struggling "Higher Ground" medleys at the end of "...So Addictive." Finally, "Play That Beat" reanimates the lost strings from "Da Real World," but this time the strings hit with a funky freshness.

Many immediately characterized "Under Construction" as a classic. This cannot be true. For an album to be classic, it has to have a retro-feel that everyone can appreciate, much like the now-outdated G-Funk of Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" or the good-vibe storytelling of Snoop's "Doggystyle." The fact is that, at the pace modern radio is going, Timbaland's production will be ahead of the game for years to come. So, while for now this album can be called a contemporary hip-hop masterpiece, the world needs to hold off on calling it a classic until it sounds classic, in about the year 2050.

Description of Under Construction

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• Music > Styles
• R&B
• Rap & Hip-Hop