Songoftheday 11/20/23 - How you stuntin' these hoes? Need to talk, what you know? And stop talking 'bout who I'm stickin' And lickin' just mad it ain't yours...

 

 

"Gossip Folks" - Missy Elliott featuring Ludacris

from the album Under Construction (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

 

Today's song comes from rapper and newly-inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Missy Elliott, who had scored a massive crossover hit with "Work It", the lead single from her fourth album Under Construction. (The "B-side" of the American 12" and European CD single, "Pussycat", also got enough airplay to reach Billboard magazine's R&B Songs chart at #26, and the Hot 100 at #77.) The second "official" single from the record was the club track "Gossip Folks", which features rapper Ludacris, who just landed his first top ten pop hit as a lead artist with "Move B!tch" in the autumn of 2002. Written by the pair with producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Missy comes right out of the gate addressing the rumors about her, from her weight to her sexuality, in the spoken intro. Then to a frenetic groove that samples Frankie Smith's 80s jam "Double Dutch Bus" but transforms it into something completely different, Elliott rapid-fire verses about her nonchalance before going into an urban pig-latin chorus that somehow works. Ludacris pops in with more than just a cameo but his best rhymes of his career to that point, marking his own struggles making it in the business through the media fire. The music video is one of the best edited and choreographed of the decade, and as common, inserts a part of a totally different cut ("Funky Fresh Dressed" with Philly rapper Ms. Jade) inside it. The result made the one-two punch with "Work It" complete...

"Gossip Folks" became Missy's fourth top ten hit as a lead artist on Billboard's Hot 100 (and eighth overall) in March of 2003, while climbing to #5 on their R&B Singles chart and #2 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song rose to #8 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #3 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop list, and #4 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Dance remixes of the song done by British DJ/producer Fatboy Slim helped "Gossip Folks" top Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for a week. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Denmark (#6) and the United Kingdom (#9), and made the top-40 in Australia (#22), Sweden (#24), Belgium (#24 Flanders), Germany (#28), Ireland (#28), and Italy (#32). At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Gossip Folks" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Rap Performance, losing (criminally) to Nelly, P. Diddy, and Murphy Lee's "Shake Ya Tailfeather". 

Another cut from the Under Construction album, "Back In The Day", wasn't released as a single (despite or maybe because of the high-profile feature by Jay-Z on the song), but it got enough airplay to pop on to the R&B Singles chart in Billboard at #86

Missy and Ludacris will be back to the series.

(10/10)

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Here's the dance remix from Fatboy Slim that took away the Double Dutch Bus and gave a driving house-march beat for the dancefloor and help it top the club chart...

Elliott performed the song (along with "Work It") on The Tonight Show in 2003...

Up tomorrow: A "Voice" coach has a kid.