2. Missy ElliottUnder Construction

EXPANDED EDITION

Soundtrack your reading with a specially curated playlist for this article.
Available to all our Subscriber Plus members or as part of our free 30-day trial offer

If you think about Missy Elliott at that time, in terms of her being able to dress in the way that she did, she wasn’t like a video ho, she was wearing these blow-up outfits. What I love about Under Construction, because it’s right after the time that Aaliyah passed away, is she’s honouring that she’s under construction and that nothing is perfect. Things aren’t the way we thought about. And her feeling for community that she keeps saying in between the songs – I thought was just so beautiful. But also, just so many bangers, obviously. ‘Work It’, ‘Slide’, and there’s a million other ones. I was completely inspired at that time.