Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 04/09/06
Label: Atlantic

Who's the greatest hip hop star of the past decade? Eminem? Really? A crossover hit with Dido, 57 takes on killing your mother and a few tit jokes. That doesn't look quite so amazing in the cold morning light. What about 50 Cent? Exit wounds, "In Da Club", franchises, computer games, mumbled threats, a Fiddy vibrator… And did we mention the gunshot wounds? Hmmmm.

No, as evidenced on this mostly jaw-dropping collection of singles, the greatest most fantastic hip hop star on the planet is Melissa Arnette Elliott. Ok, let's forget the Gap adverts, those woeful live appearances (or non-appearances) and that collaboration with Mel B - when it comes to career reinvention, innovation and sheer undisputable genius, no one has come within miles.

From the start, it must have been pretty hard for a size 18 black female (now size 10) in a genre where women are typically treated as adornments. And that's initially what Missy was: pretty hard. Her first albums, "Supa Dupa Fly" and "Da Real World" - represented here by "Sock It 2 Me", "Hot Boyz", "All N My Grill" and "She's A Bitch" - out-foxed Foxy Brown and went head to head with Lil' Kim to smack down all-comers.

But, refusing those stereotypes, Missy smashed the mould. In cahoots with production Midas Timbaland and video-maker Hype Williams (remember the blow-up suit in "The Rain"?) she decided to become a hip hop superhero instead. The turning point was, of course, "Get Ur Freak On". The sound of summer 2001 and hypnotic like Kaa the python in "Jungle Book", that combination of bhangra beats and insane shout outs ("Holler…shut your mouth!") united tribes under a single pulsating groove. Five years on and it still sounds like the future. The album, "Miss E…So Addictive", also produced "One Minute Man" and "4 My People". The latter being the most overt celebration of Ecstasy since The Shamen's "Ebeneezer Goode".

Of course, hip hop being hip hop, it's no good reinventing the wheel once - unlike, say, Kasabian, who can just tinker with a well-thumbed songsheet, your average rapper has to do it with every release. Fair play to Missy, she had a real go: turning up trumps immediately with "Work It", which was so good that she had to rap backwards. More recent offerings "Pass The Dutch", "Lose Control" and the Incredible Bongo Band-sampling "We Run This" all revert back to the original spirit of hip hop where battles are for the dancefloor.

Quite simply, this is an essential collection from an astonishing artist. The title is not an idle hip hop request, but a statement of belief and freedom that goes back to Aretha. Missy Elliott made it, she deserves it and, as the equestrian-themed cover highlights, she's firmly in the saddle now.

    by Adam Webb