from the 12” single, Elektra Records, 1997Other than the Neptunes, no production team or single individual had more influence over the evolving sound of hip-hop beats in the ‘90s than did Virginia native Timothy ‘Timbaland’ Mosley; coincidentally, him & Pharrell actually went to the same high school. Likewise, you’d be hard-pressed to find a female rapper that did as much to push the game forward, during the same time period, as did Melissa ‘Missy’ Elliot, delivering rhymes in a cut-up, collage style that almost reminds me of Doom at times: never stuck on one flow for very long, but taking great care to spit funky phrases full of words that aren’t expected. One of the first collisions of Tim & Missy’s talents occurred on Aaliyah’s debut album, which they mostly wrote & produced, but it wasn’t until this single and subsequent LP that the duo would be working all for themselves. Although not known for traditional sampling, Tim grabbed a smoking hot loop from Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain” to serve as the foundation for this track, overtop of which he laced what would later become his signature skitter beats, along with some thunder and a continuous cricket chirp; meanwhile, Missy unleashes some of the smoothest & most endearingly quirky raps you ever heard, “…when the rain hits my window, I take a {inhaling a hit & coughing} me some indo, me and Timbaland, ooh, we sang a jangle, we so tight that you get our styles tangled; sway your dosie-do like you loco, can we get kinky tonight, like CoCo, so-so, you don't wanna play with my yo-yo, I smoke my hydro on the d-low…”
