0483. Missy Elliott
Under Construction
Interesting with an album that starts with a speech about leaving the bullshit beefing behind. After her friend Aaliya died, Missy got a bit of a reality check, in a manner of speaking, and thus dedicated a couple of spots on Under Consturction to bring her wisdom to the masses.
Generally speaking though I'm not so very fond of this type of dancefloor hiphop (even though she makes a good argument for it in the ending speech of Work It), and the amount of namedropping is almost staggering, but the number of references by quotes, steals and samples, to hiphophistory is actually pretty impressive.
The message she's sending though, is not. In one of the interludes she talks
about her "nasty" lyrics as some form of women's lib, but in the songs
there's very little of that flavor. Apart from the duet Nothing Out There
with Beyoncé there's mostly the traditional role of using sex to keep her man
around.
Not so very exciting.