Steve Reynolds Program - Gossip Folks
¿Qué Onda?
In Mexico, “¿qué onda?” is another way of saying “what’s up?” Literally translated as “What wave?,” kind of a “what’s the vibe?” thing to say. In Guadalajara, I once met a fresa (literally strawberry, but also a richie rich, as in this case) who would say “¿qué ondas?” and kinda lean on a Castilian lisp on that final s. It felt like appropriation before I really knew the term appropriation.
Why am I telling you this? Because I like to teach. That’s why.
One recommendation this time. I’m reading Diary of a Man In Despair by Friedrich Reck and it’s really making me feel lots of different emotions. Reck, a bit of a conservative snob, kept up this diary of rants from 1936 to 1944 and offering his views on the rise and fall of Nazism and Hitler, whom he despised. His takes come from an outraged, almost aristocratic, viewpoint on the breakdown of rationality in his country, but man, some things feel so prescient right now it’s unsettling.
Song #28
Gossip Folks
by Missy Elliott
On 2002’s Under Construction, Missy Elliott lays out everything in the intro. No need to try to guess what the title means; Misdemeanor tells you. It means she’s a work in progress. Her friend Aaliyah’s tragic death has made her self-reflective. She ties her own efforts to rebuild to the world of hip hop’s soldiering on after several early deaths (Left Eye, Big Pun, Pac and Biggie) in the game and even the nation’s recovery after 9/11.
Now don’t think this Missy monologue portends a funereal and ponderous dirge. This is Missy Elliott, one of the most creative rappers ever, paired with the innovative wunderkind producer Timbaland, chopping samples and making the catchiest loops and beats of the decade. In fact, this album is a direct continuation of her album Miss E…So Addictive with the all-time banger “Get Ur Freak On” where Missy sometimes uses her voice as a percussive instrument and dropping boasts “simultaneously at the same time,” (to quote one of my favorite movies). She brings on guest rappers a lot like a last time. The intro is the serious part of the album. The rest is a party.
“Gossip Folks” is sandwiched between “Bring The Pain” (feat. Method Man) and megahit “Work It” at the front end of the album. It’s a strong run of songs and doesn’t really let up with the next songs either. I do want to acknowledge the insanity of the song “Pussycat” where Elliott updates the “feets don’t fail me know” line to sing to another part of her anatomy which she hopes will perform at the top of its game soon. Is this a thing people do before dates? Admonish their genitalia?
“Gossip Folks” gets all my love because of its high-speed riff, BOM BOM duh DAHDAH, that goes through it. Missy matches the busy beat with lyrics spit out fast and furious. It starts with the hilarious dialogue of backbiters sniping at Missy (“I hear she eat one cracker a day” still a great rumor to record) and then Missy lays it down. “How you stuntin' these hoes/Need to talk what you know” is Missy saying back off, focus on yourself. She also disses “Y’all job’s just hanging up clothes/Step to me get burnt like toast” like the champion should. She runs hot.
Then comes the chorus, cribbed from “Double Dutch Bus” by Frankie Smith, the 1981 funk song that uses jump rope “–izzle talk,” years before Snoop Dogg repopularized it. The child nasally singing on it back and forth with the guy exploiting the hot new double dutch trend for a buck (while his record company scammed him out of thousands) sounds on their own musical scale and planet.
And what does a chorus that’s inviting someone to hop into the double dutch action have to do with these folks gossiping about Missy Elliott? Not much. It does imply these people are talking nonsense, I guess. It does have more to do with the subject than Ludacris’s verse which recounts his coming up in the game. Still, ‘Cris gives some killer lines (“Now all around the world on the microphone/He leave the booth smellin' like Burberry cologne” seems very in the moment) in his recognizable voice.
It all ends with Missy calling out these two-face women in such specific terms that she must be thinking of individuals. It’s brutal, but as Missy says in the intro, she’s a work in progress. The title Under Construction is her mea culpa. She’ll be blander amd nicer next time.
back matter
This issue’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is “Tugboat” by Galaxie 500. Never has a first song by a band set their path so clearly.
kthxbai