As a kid growing up in New York City in the 80s, I loved rap, especially Run-DMC. In my teens, I moved away from it under the pressure of my rockist peers and other white nonsense. I found my way back into rap fandom as an adult, thanks in large part to Missy Elliott’s music of the early 2000s. “Get Ur Freak On” was especially undeniable, and it remains as fresh today as it was in 2001.
The track is my go-to example for Phrygian mode. I love that the plucky tumbi part doesn’t repeat identically; in the seventh repeat out of each eight, the last note is raised a half-step. (I marked these pattern-breaking notes in red in the chart below.) This is the kind of producerly attention to detail that makes a track grab you hard. Superb though Timbaland’s track is, though, my main interest here is Missy’s flow. I transcribed the first verse and the hook by writing a melody like I did for KRS-One and Lil’ Kim. Because I have Missy’s acapella track, I could assist my ears using Melodyne.