Project 365 Day #34
“Back in the Day” (feat. Jay-Z) from the album Under Construction, released in 2002
Missy Elliott is an icon. We do not deserve her. She is incapable of writing a bad rap. Her beats hit hard. Her voice is like butter when it needs to be and like a knife cutting through butter when it needs to be.
“Back in the Day” captures all of this in a tight five minutes. Bouncing off of Jay-Z’s always solid rhymes, Elliott, using an old school 80s style, reminds us what it was like to be a kid, wearing BKs, fat laces, and gold chains. Maybe we didn’t all wear that, but we do all have childhood memories.
In its specificity, “Back in the Day” appeals universally.