Fourteen years is a long time under any circumstances, but being deprived of a new collection of Missy Elliott songs for fourteen years has felt like eons. That long wait ended early Friday, when Missy dropped a new EP—and a brand-new video to match.
"At midnight tonight I’m dropping a collection of new songs! Let’s #ThrowItBack to a time when music just felt good and made us want to dance!" she wrote on social media Thursday of her new release, Iconology. And "Throw it Back" absolutely delivers on that count, with a beat that defies anyone not to dance and a nostalgia-inducing "flip it and reverse it" reference.
In the video, which features Teyana Taylor, Missy snatches wigs with a snap of her fingers, and, in one of the best visuals from any music video this year, backup dancers play double dutch using her braids as jump ropes. On Monday, Elliott will receive the Video Vanguard Award at MTV’s Video Music Awards, and she references her previous accolades in the new single. “So many VMAs that I could live on the moon,” she raps on “Throw it Back,” while an accompanying scene in the video finds her recreating the network’s Moon Man trophy.
The new collection of songs are produced by Elliott and her longtime collaborator Timbaland, as well as Willi Hendrix. And while a banger, "Throw It Back" isn’t even the best song from the EP—that honor probably goes to "DripDemeanor," a piece of pure nineties-inspired R&B perfection. There couldn't be a better way to start off the weekend.
