“Yeah he got bands in the Bando / Missy got dudes in Orlando”

January 27, 2017 5:30 PM

Missy Elliot has a new track out! But you should just watch the music video: “I’m Better” (Lyrics.)
posted by Going To Maine (31 comments total)

Does she have... mirrorshade lipstick???

Thank God for Missy.
posted by selfnoise at 5:33 PM on January 27, 2017 [12 favorites]

Missy lives in the Future.
posted by thatone at 5:39 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Love the video but the song really doesn't sound very Missy. It made me go back and watch WTF a couple more times, though.
posted by flatluigi at 5:40 PM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

I think a lot of the flashing light highlights on lips and dancers were post-production work.
posted by hippybear at 5:42 PM on January 27, 2017

Missy lives in the Future.

If by the future you mean the 1990's, then I agree.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:57 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am so glad for the existence of Missy Elliott. She brings me into a better world :)
posted by Peach at 6:06 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

There is nothing about that beat or those rhymes that is 1990s.
posted by hippybear at 6:19 PM on January 27, 2017 [18 favorites]

missy is about half a step behind, but she uses that half step to absorb everything and remix it in a perfect simulacra. also, those dancers.
posted by PinkMoose at 6:36 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

If by 1990s you mean the part that was dominated by Missy, then um...yes, she was also a genius then, too.

Thank fucking God she came back. Literally the one bright spot to 2016.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:37 PM on January 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Whoa. I need to start paying more attention to modern hip hop. This is soooo deliciously weird (both visually and sonically). What else out there is comparable?
posted by General Zubon at 6:39 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

"deliciously weird (both visually and sonically)" has sort of defined Missy Elliot across her decades-long career.
posted by hippybear at 6:42 PM on January 27, 2017 [18 favorites]

fwiw, I think the reflective lips are just stick on reflective plastic. Low-fi analogue, but no less cool.
posted by bigZLiLk at 6:42 PM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

Loved this. At first I thought oh great more simplistic triplet mumble raptrap (could've done without this Lamb guy) but there's actually a lot of cool subtle rhyhmic stuff happening in the beat & Missy's flow. And that choreography is fresh!

At first I thought that Ironside siren was from Alien, but check how that fits too - same two notes that start the Missy track.
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:50 PM on January 27, 2017

Whoa. I need to start paying more attention to modern hip hop. This is soooo deliciously weird (both visually and sonically). What else out there is comparable?

Weird visuals is not something to which I can attest, and weird audio is as one does - to me, cloud rap, whatever it is that Fetty Wap does in “Trap Queen” and the whole of Slim Thug’s catalog (e.g. “Kanye West”) sounds odd to me. But maybe try Schoolboy Q’s “THat Part”?

(Indeed, while I’m not sure that the beats above sound like they’re from the 1990s, I do think that Missy sounds just like herself. Which is great! But not, like, the future of the genre or anything.)
posted by Going To Maine at 6:51 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thanks Going To Maine -- I'm definitely more interested in the 'sonically' part here, so I appreciate the recommendations. I'll check these out!
posted by General Zubon at 6:54 PM on January 27, 2017

Future is also very popular with the kids these days and I guess uses autotone? So does Lil Uzi Vert? There are better resources out there; I'm more a casual voyeur than a consumer. (I do quite like Noname's album from last year, but its production doesn't seem particularly remarkable, just correct.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:00 PM on January 27, 2017

Whoa. I need to start paying more attention to modern hip hop. This is soooo deliciously weird (both visually and sonically). What else out there is comparable?

Sonically?

Father's Look at Wrist

Desiigner's Panda, popularized by Kanye in Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2.

Visually, I think its just an updated version of what Missy's always done.
posted by Hume at 7:03 PM on January 27, 2017 [5 favorites]

You can tell it's not a pre-hiatus Missy video because there's no fisheye lens.

(that's more of a Hype Williams thing than anything but still)
posted by selfnoise at 7:13 PM on January 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

where is the tricia miranda choreo tutorial, what does kk think, i need more information
posted by poffin boffin at 7:17 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Those lips are everything
posted by (Over) Thinking at 7:35 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's like a grime track which never really kicks in. Still like it a lot though, just observing that it's interesting seeing those sounds being used by American artists.
posted by stevedawg at 1:39 AM on January 28, 2017

Yessss more Missy.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 3:01 AM on January 28, 2017

I really want Missy to collaborate with Janelle Monae now.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:06 AM on January 28, 2017 [4 favorites]

I really want Missy to collaborate with Janelle Monae now.

Collaborate, hell. I want them to be the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket. (Latifah for Secretary of State, Secretary of the Interior Young Thug, Killer Mike chief policy advisor, Gucci Mane Secretary of Defense, Andre 3000 head of the NEA, Frank Ocean Secretary of Transportation....)

Make America Black Again!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:49 AM on January 28, 2017 [24 favorites]

I love the dancing in her videos. I was really hoping for a video to Pep Rally, but it spawned a dance challenge across video platforms that was pretty good. This video of the Pep Rally dance challenge choreographed by Mekhi Stylez is my favorite.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 6:24 AM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

I desperately wanted her to crush again, especially after her SB performance and the get off my lawn kids saying she should get a record deal. But Where They From and now this....well...

It don't matter how many you sold. Platinum or gold, hot or cold, yo.
Yall can keep on napping but if you out there rapping it will happen yo.
It's like death and taxes, you can't get by it so don't try it yo.
You won't know it's your last left.
posted by cashman at 6:49 AM on January 28, 2017

I've been having a bad time lately but I think Missy just gave me my new anthem.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:44 AM on January 28, 2017

Is it too soon to have a Song of the Year??
posted by Kitteh at 11:18 AM on January 28, 2017

I really, really want to see the behind-the-scenes footage of the choreographers and dancers working on the routines, the riggers setting up the suspension for the dancers, the figuring out how to get the pool footage… So cool.
posted by Lexica at 1:27 PM on January 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

My wife said it best: this video is what Drake is going for, but 1000x better.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:26 PM on January 28, 2017

I was kind of expecting a weird intermezzo in there, like nearly all her other videos, but this is still gorge. The Save The Humans getup is, *kisses fingertips*. And the first fall into the pool, ugh.
posted by en forme de poire at 3:30 AM on January 29, 2017