Flip It and Reverse It Part 2

Summary

Hit Parade: “Flip It and Reverse It, Part 2”

Podcast: Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Host: Chris Molanphy
Date: May 27, 2022
Episode Theme:
An in-depth exploration of the genius and influence of Pharrell Williams (with Chad Hugo as the Neptunes), Timbaland, and Missy Elliott—three visionary artists and producers from Virginia Beach—whose idiosyncratic style, innovation, and collaborations reshaped the sound and business of 21st-century pop, hip-hop, and R&B. The episode focuses on their career peaks, their creative highs and lows, interwoven stories, and the lasting cultural impact of their musical legacies.

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Episode Overview

Chris Molanphy charts the meteoric rise, creative experimentation, challenges, and enduring influence of the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams & Chad Hugo), Timbaland, and Missy Elliott from the early 2000s onward. Through storytelling, song snippets, and sharp chart analysis, Molanphy shows how these innovators redefined mainstream music, switched up the rules, and blended genres—often finding themselves at the top of the charts even as they retained their distinctive, off-beat edge.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Neptunes’ Pop Crossover and Sonic Expansion (2001–2003)

• Britney Spears Breaks the Mold:
  • The Neptunes wrote "I'm a Slave 4 U" initially for Janet Jackson, but it became Britney Spears’ lead single in 2001, marking her shift toward R&B-influenced pop ([01:47]).

    “Britney generated her most R&B-leaning track to date. It was actually the first of her songs to crack the R&B chart…” (Chris Molanphy, [01:47]).

• Dominating Multiple Genres:
  • In 2002, The Neptunes crafted hits for artists as wide-ranging as NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, and especially Nelly, whose “Hot in Herre” became their first #1 pop single, spending seven weeks at the top ([05:16]).

    “The Neptunes flipped this hook, added their percolating percussion and Nelly’s rapid and turned it into the 2002 song of the summer.” ([05:16])

  • Their versatility allowed both pop and hip-hop artists to cross over to new audiences without sacrificing credibility.

2. The Missy Elliott & Timbaland Masterpiece Era (2002–2004)

• Missy’s “Work It” Era:

  • In 2002, Missy Elliott’s Under Construction—a celebration of Aaliyah’s memory—featured “Work It,” a party anthem loaded with wordplay, memes-before-memes, and iconic reversals ([11:13]).

    “That backwards line … that’s just ‘I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it’ played backwards right after Missy has rapped that line forwards.” ([11:13])

  • “Work It” held at #2 for 10 weeks, kept from the top only by Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” but was named critics’ top song of the year and is now a recognized classic ([12:32]).

• Creative Partnership Falters:

  • By 2003, friction developed between Missy and Timbaland in the studio, influenced by their shared grief over Aaliyah’s loss. Their collaboration yielded diminishing returns, signaling the close of a prolific era ([13:51]).

3. Second Acts and Artistic Reinvention (2005–2008)

• Pharrell as Star, Producer & Songwriter:
  • Pharrell began releasing solo material (“Frontin’”), but continued to shape hits for others, notably Snoop Dogg’s “Beautiful” and Kelis’s “Milkshake.”
  • The Neptunes’ production met controversy with Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” and the 2004 Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction,” yet their reputation remained intact ([19:13]).
• Timbaland’s Resurgence:
  • After a quiet spell, Timbaland returned to prominence producing Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” and Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” both #1s in 2006 ([24:14]).

    “Promiscuous was a total 180 from Nelly Furtado’s previous output… Promiscuous presented Nelly as a reborn club diva. Slinky, sexy and sly.” ([24:14]) “The Justin single is a risk... When you hear it the second time, that’s when it starts to hit you. A record like that will stay around longer than a record that hits you right away.” (Timbaland, [28:40])

  • Timbaland’s “Shock Value” further cemented his producer-artist status, yielding hits with Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Keri Hilson, and OneRepublic (“Apologize”) ([34:23]).
• Madonna Collaborations as a Benchmark:
  • Timbaland and Pharrell separately produced tracks for Madonna's Hard Candy (2008), with “4 Minutes” being Madonna’s biggest hit in years, an indicator of Timbaland’s then-superior chart presence ([35:10], [37:37]).

4. The 2010s: Normcore and Global Cultural Influence

• Pharrell’s Persistent Hits and Pop Culture Victories:
  • Pharrell’s forays into film with the Despicable Me soundtrack lead to “Happy,” which topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks and scored an Oscar nomination, demonstrating his mainstream, cross-generational appeal ([42:12]).
• Chart Domination & Legal Controversy:
  • In 2013, Pharrell was the common theme in both Robin Thicke’s "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” simultaneously occupying #1 and #2 spots on the Hot 100 ([44:00]).
  • Pharrell’s songwriting on "Blurred Lines" triggered a headline-generating lawsuit over its similarities to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up."
• Timbaland’s Continued Relevance:
  • Timbaland’s role in Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” (2013) and collaborations with Jay-Z ("Holy Grail") kept him in the upper echelons of pop hit-making ([48:00]).
• Behind-the-scenes Mentor:
  • Missy Elliott, after battling health issues (Graves’ disease), focused on writing for and boosting other women artists, helping shape the careers of Ciara, Keyshia Cole, Monica, and others ([51:50]).

    “By 2005, Elliott was shifting her focus from her own material toward these collaborations. For Ciara, Missy co-wrote the number two hit ‘One, Two Step’ and made a guest rap appearance.” ([51:50])

5. Missy Elliott’s Enduring Presence and Influence

• Missy’s Accident and Comeback:
  • Missy’s absence from recordings in the late 2000s was because of illness, but she returned as a guest artist and was celebrated at the 2015 Super Bowl and with the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 2019 ([53:41], [59:13]).

    “Since her successful treatment for Graves disease, she seems to enjoy being an elder stateswoman of hip-hop. In 2019, MTV finally acknowledged her singular influence by presenting her with their Video Vanguard Award…” ([59:13])

• Her Influence on Newer Artists:
  • Lizzo, among others, directly credits Missy’s impact on her own work and career ([60:08]).

    “For me, being young and weird and chubby and a black girl and wanting to do music, I was like, wow, anything is possible.” (Lizzo, [60:08])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Pharrell's influence on Britney’s R&B pivot:

  “It could be argued that sonically, Britney adapted to them more than they did to her.” (Chris Molanphy, [01:47])

• On the iconic “Work It” reversal:

  “That’s just ‘I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it’ played backwards right after Missy has rapped that line forwards.” (Chris Molanphy, [11:13])

• Timbaland on innovation:

  “To me, making music is about taking risks.” (Timbaland, [23:28])

• On Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack”:

  “When you hear it the second time, that’s when it starts to hit you. A record like that will stay around longer…” (Timbaland, [28:40])

• Missy Elliott’s criteria for a hit:

  “If I can't see the visual of what the video is gonna be, then that’s a record that I just gotta throw away.” (Missy Elliott, [59:13])

• Lizzo on Missy Elliott’s influence:

  “For me, being young and weird and chubby and a black girl and wanting to do music, I was like, wow, anything is possible.” (Lizzo, [60:08])

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Important Timestamps

• Britney's R&B reinvention with The Neptunes: [01:35]–[04:16]
• Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and The Neptunes’ first #1: [04:27]–[06:52]
• Missy Elliott’s “Work It” and its legacy: [11:13]–[13:48]
• Missy and Timbaland’s creative breakup: [13:51]–[15:00]
• Timbaland’s comeback with Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake: [24:14]–[32:00]
• Shock Value era and Madonna’s “4 Minutes”: [34:23]–[36:00]
• Pharrell's "Happy" and the hit parade of 2013–2014: [42:12]–[45:30]
• Missy Elliott's career as a mentor-capstone and 2019 Video Vanguard: [51:34]–[60:18]
• Lizzo on Missy’s impact and cultural legacy: [60:08]–[60:18]

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Episode Takeaways

• Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Timbaland, and Missy Elliott permanently altered the contours of pop and urban music, blending bold experimentation with unprecedented mainstream success.
• Their evolving collaborations—sometimes harmonious, sometimes competitive—propelled each other to new creative heights.
• Even as their hit-making ebbed and flowed, their innovations and cultural leadership paved the way for the next wave of artists, especially women and Black artists redefining the genre.
• Missy Elliott, in particular, is celebrated as a pioneer of both musical and visual creativity, whose influence now echoes throughout contemporary music.

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Summary crafted in the spirit and tone of Chris Molanphy’s passionate, scholarly storytelling.

Transcript

[Chris Melanphy]

You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.

[Narrator/Host]

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. Chris I'm Chris Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode we introduced Pharrell Williams, Timothy Timbaland Mosley and Missy Elliott, three friends from around Virginia beach with quirky tastes in music and genius ears for a hook. We are now up to 2001, when both Pharrell and his Neptune's partner Chad Hugo and Timbaland and Missy are at the height of their chart powers. And they're all about to cast a wider net for the superstars they will work with. By 2001, the Neptunes, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo had massively grown their clientele. That year alone they produced hits for everyone from Usher to Ray J to Foxy Brown. But one particular client was drawing more attention than all the others.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

I know I may be young but I've got feelings too and I need to do what I feel like doing.

[Narrator/Host]

So let me go I'm a Slave for your was the lead single of Britney Spears 2001 album. Simply titled Britney. It was a big departure for Spears, whose last two CDs had led off with tracks produced by Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin. I'm a Slave for you was a track Pharrell and Chad had originally demoed for Janet Jackson, but when she passed, Spears, eagerly looking to shed her teen pop image, jumped at the chance to record it. She premiered the single at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards in a headline grabbing performance that found Britney wearing a barely there outfit and a movie Massive albino python Snake. The performance at the VMAs nearly overshadowed the song, which was only a medium sized hit for Britney, peaking at number 27 on the Hot 100. Critics compared it not only to Janet Jackson, but also Princess, and even despite the modest chart performance, it was a successful crossover for all involved. Britney generated her most R and B leaning track to date. It was actually the first of her songs to crack the R B chart and the Neptunes proved they could work with a center of the bullseye pop star. Indeed, it could be argued that sonically, Britney adapted to them more than they did to her by 2002, which would prove the high watermark of the Neptunes career. As producers Forell and Chad were pulling a range of acts over to their side of the hit making Street. That year alone they applied their bouncy skittering hip hop meets pop sound to hits by rapper Busta Rhymes. Boy band NSync.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Why don't you be my girlfriend?

[Chris Melanphy]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Host]

And as noted at the top of this episode, NSYNC singer turned soloist Justin Timberlake. But the most explosive of these hits came from St. Louis rapper Nelly. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo built his track out of an interpolation of an old hit with by Go Go pioneer Chuck Brown. His 1979 R&B number one smash Bustin Loose.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

I feel like Bustin Loose Bustin loose.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Give me the bread now.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

I feel like Bustin loose.

[Narrator/Host]

The Neptunes flipped this hook, added their percolating percussion and Nelly's rapid and turned it into the 2002 song of the summer. Hot In Here. In June of 02, Hot in Here topped the Hot 100, becoming the Neptune's first ever number one pop single. And it stayed there for seven weeks. Billboard ranked it the third biggest hit of that year. What made 2002 so remarkable for the Neptunes was their versatility. Their pop acceptance hadn't damaged their hip hop credibility. The Neptunes produced the year's most acclaimed rap album, Lord Willin by Clipse, a pair of brothers who'd known Pharrell since their days as teenagers in Virginia Beach. The CD by Clips generated two cutting edge top 10 R&B top 40 pop hits, Grindin. And when the Last Time Smoke some.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

Drink some, get ripped and make the girls in the party just strip.

[Narrator/Host]

And that same year, Williams and Hugo released a rock leaning band album they'd been tinkering with since 2001, a side project they called NERD, which supposedly stood for no One Ever Really Dies, but most fans appropriately just called Nerd. Nerds debut album in search of was 2002's sleeper hit, never rising above number 56 on the album chart, but quietly going gold and even spinning off minor hit songs at multiple radio formats, including the R and B chart where the lap dance reached number 85. And more remarkably, the modern rock chart where rockstar reached number 36. Pharrell and Chad had pulled off a neat trick. All of their handiwork sounded distinctly like them. You could often guess when a hit was a Neptune's track, but each song built its own little world. For their part, Missy Elliot and Timbaland weren't having a bad 2002 either, despite the lingering pain from the 2001 death of Aaliyah. To distract themselves, Missy and Tim poured themselves into their work, both for others and for Missy herself. One of their highest profile success stories was a singer they'd met during their years with Devontae Swing. Charlene Keys, who went by the stage name Tweet. This, by the way, was years before Twitter existed. Tweet scored a gold album and a top 10 single with the Timbaland produced Missy Elliott penned hit Oops. Oh my. Missy, still finding new ways to express female sexual agency, wrote the song about a woman's self admiration and arousal at the sight of her own beauty. But Missy and Tim's greatest triumph of 2002 was Elliot's fourth studio album, Under Construction, which Missy dedicated to Aaliyah. You would think the album might be somber, but Missy decided her commemoration of Aaliyah would be an all out party led by her all time biggest pop hit. A song that a year after get your freak on was no less innovative, no less ebullient. Work. It was the ultimate affirmation that the public had acclimated to the Virginia beach team's wackiness. It was Missy at her most irresistible, even when it was unintelligible. By the way, for those who still don't know, that backwards line in the.

[Chris Melanphy]

Chorus.

[Narrator/Host]

That'S just I put my thang down, flip it and reverse. It played backwards right after Missy has rapped that line forwards. The song was like a collection of memes before we had a word for memes. Animal noises to represent male body parts, references to Prince, Halle Berry and the character Kunta Kinte from Roots and, as best as anyone can tell, the first popular recorded reference to a callipygian woman's posterior as a badonkadonk.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

I think you can handle this.

[Narrator/Host]

The music video too was mesmerizing and joyous, with appearances by producer Timbaland and a limber child dancer named Allison Stoner. With kinetic dance moves by Missy and a troop of break dancers, it would go on to win Video of the year at the MTV VMAs one year later. Girls Girls get As for the song.

[Chris Melanphy]

Work, it climbed all the way to.

[Narrator/Host]

Number two on the Hot 100 in November 2002, and it surely would have.

[Chris Melanphy]

Gone to number one if it didn't.

[Narrator/Host]

Have the misfortune to peek behind Eminem's 12 week blockbuster Lose Yourself Work. It held at number two for 10 straight weeks, the longest run in the runner up slot without reaching number one, a record Missy tied with Foreigner's 1981 hit Waiting for a Girl like youe. Missy had her revenge on Eminem, if you can call it that, with the critics Work, it topped the 2002 Paz and Jop poll. The second straight year Elliot took that title from the critics and two decades later it ranks number 56 on Rolling Stone's greatest song poll. Its legacy is secure. Entering 2003, Missy Elliott's Under Construction album was platinum on its way to double platinum, making it her all time bestseller. The album produced another tongue twisting hit.

[Chris Melanphy]

With gossip folks, a number eight team.

[Narrator/Host]

Up with rapper Ludacris. But this massive success would be hard to follow up. Missy and Timbaland returned to the studio right away in 2003 to produce another album, and that's when their collaboration started to fray. The pair reportedly bickered in the studio, with Elliot rejecting most of the beats Timbaland brought her. In his memoir, Tim theorizes that they were, quote, both still mourning Aaliyah, and they were taking that sublimated grief out on each other. When the album this Is Not a Test reached stores in the fall of 03. It did go platinum on the strength of Missy's reputation, but it fell short of the top 10, her only album to do so and its only hit, Pass that Dutch, an attempt to recreate the zaniness of work. It underperformed on the charts, peaking at number 27 pop, number 17 R B. It would wind up being the last time a Missy Elliott album would be primarily produced by Timbaland. Two years later, for her follow up the Cookbook, Timbaland produced only a couple of deep cuts and the album's lead single, the number three smash Lose Control, was produced by Elliott herself. Timbaland did produce one more iconic hit in 2003, this time for Jay Z's the Black Album, the acclaimed favorite of future President Barack Obama, Dirt off your shoulder. But after dirt reached number five on the Hot 100 in early 2004, Timbaland went into a two year wilderness period where most of the tracks he produced failed to hit, missing the top 10 or even the top 40. Tim kept himself busy working on albums for artists ranging from Brandy to LL Cool J to Bubba Spark, but there was a sense in the industry that maybe his production style had peaked. Meanwhile, his peer Pharrell was only moving more toward the front. In the summer of 2003, Pharrell issued his debut single under his own name, titled Frontin, a languid hip hop jam sung entirely in falsetto with a supporting rap from his friend Jay Z. It was an auspicious career launch, reaching number five on the Hot 100 by the fall and suggesting that the toothsome, tattooed producer could become a star artist in his own Right. But for the time being, Pharrell was too preoccupied. Most of his vocals were deployed on singles he and Chad Hugo produced for other artists, including Snoop Dogg's number six hit Beautiful. And the debonair Change Clothes, the first single from Jay Z's the Black album. Behind the mixing board, the Neptunes were still sonically pushing the envelope. At the end of O3, they gave their protege Khaleesi her biggest ever hit with Milkshake, a number three smash built off of a skeletal synthesizer beat.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

My milkshake brings all our boys to the yard and they're like, it's better than yours Damn right it's better than yours I could teach you but I have to charge My milkshake brings all.

[Narrator/Host]

The and in 2004, the even more stripped down drop it like it's Hot gave Snoop Dogg his first ever Hot.

[Chris Melanphy]

100 number one hit, take a second.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

Matter of fact, you should take 4B and think before you a little skateboard.

[Narrator/Host]

These hits helped paper over the Neptune's hit that had the wrong kind of notoriety. Pharrell and Chad had written and produced the third single from Justin Timberlake's Justified album, a sumptuous dance track called Rock your Body that reached number five in 2003. Unfortunately, rock your Body later became infamous when Timberlake performed it at the 2004 Super bowl halftime show while triggering the so called wardrobe malfunction on Janet Jackson. The line gonna have you naked by the end of this song. The Neptunes wrote that. Even though it is now hard to hear this song without recalling the incident because the societal impact of the wardrobe malfunction largely and unfairly fell on Janet Jackson, not Justin Timberlake. Not much rubbed off on the Neptunes either. In fact, one year later, in the spring of 2005, the Neptune scored yet another number one pop, and this was their first for a woman performer. If work, it could be called a meme song before memes. Hollaback Girl was a clapback song before clapbacks. Gwen Stefani, front woman for the Spirit ska rock band no Doubt, claimed she wrote it in response to some derogatory comments made against her by rocker Courtney Love. Pharrell Williams channeled that sass into a track built like a cheerleader chant, its beat borrowed from Queen's We Will Rock youk, its basic structure from Tony Basil's Mickey, and its titular phrase from a prior hit by rapper Fabulous called Youngin. Holla back. On Gwen Stefani's solo debut album Love Angel Music, baby. Hollaback Girl was by far the biggest hit, reaching the top of the Hot 100 in just six weeks. After prior Stefani singles produced by Nelly Hooper and Dr. Dre underperformed, it was the first single of the digital era to sell more than a million downloads. Later that year, Gwen Stefani returned the favor to Pharrell, singing the hook on his second solo single, can I have it like that?

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

Can I have it like that? Can I have it like that?

[Narrator/Host]

At the halfway mark of the aughts, Pharrell Williams had established himself, along with production partner Chad Hugo, as the king of quirky, bespoke hit making. It had been a couple of years since Pharrell's cousin Timbaland had scored a major hit, but that was all about to change.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

It turns her on. She liked the way my hands use her body for hand warmers and all our car doors go up like transformers. See, I can do it this way, I can do it that way. From the crib in Virginia to that new Miami getaway.

[Chris Melanphy]

In a 2006 interview with British newspaper the Guardian, Timbaland said, quote, I don't really like where music is at right now. It's boring, too watered down. Nobody's taken chances. It's all in the box. And the box gets too tight. Somebody's got to break the box busted open. To me, making music is about taking risks, unquote. When the man born Timothy Moseley gave this interview, he was coming out of his most fallow period of hit making since his breakthrough a decade earlier. But Timbaland's hitless period was about to end in high style.

[Narrator/Host]

In part, this was due to a.

[Chris Melanphy]

New vanity label, Moseley Music Group, that Tim launched in 2006 with Universal Music. But really, the seeds for Tim's commercial return had been planted years earlier at the height of his first wave of success. This is a remix Timbaland produced of a 2001 hit called Turn off the Light by Nelly Furtado, a Canadian singer songwriter of Portuguese descent from British Columbia. Furtado's music in the early aughts could best be described as pop rock with a world beat vibe. Tim's 2001 remix brought out the hip hop elements in Furtado's pop hit. Five years later, when Nelly Furtado's contract with the now defunct Dreamworks Records label was absorbed into the Universal Music Group, Timbaland signed Furtado to his Moseley Music Group label and began producing an album for her. Furtado's prior lp, an earnest world beat collection called Folklore, had been a flop in the U.S. together, she and Tim decided to reinvent her career from the ground up. Neither of them had much to lose. Promiscuous was a total 180 from Nelly Furtado's previous output. Even at her poppiest, her early hits had not been been either as hip hop derived nor as sexually bold, but from its title to its rapt verses, traded back and forth with Timbaland himself, who was given featured billing on the track. Promiscuous presented Nelly as a reborn club diva. Slinky, sexy and sly, Promiscuous reached number one on the Hot 100 in early July 2006, the same week the album she and Timbaland produced, called Loose, debuted at number one on the album chart. The CD was a global smash in the UK that same week. A different Loose track called Man Eater was number one. Furtado's improbable reinvention was just as momentous for Timbaland. Promiscuous was his first Hot 100 number one as a producer since Aaliyah's Try Again back in 2000. Timbaland would not wait long for another chart topper, however. Actually, he waited about a month. Sexy Back was the first single from Future Sex Love Sounds, the second solo album by Justin Timberlake, which Timbaland executive produced. As on Promiscuous, Timbaland could be heard all over Sexy Back, trading lines with Justin and directing the song's kinetic flow. Almost instantly, the song's titular refrain, I'm bringing sexy back became a catchphrase.

[Narrator/Host]

Quote.

[Chris Melanphy]

The Justin single is a risk, timbaland told the Guardian. It's a different record. Some people say they like it, some people don't know. But when you hear it the second time, that's when it starts to hit you. A record like that will stay around longer than a record that hits you right away, unquote. It didn't take long to catch on. In its eighth week on the Hot 100, Sexy Back reached number one just a month after Promiscuous fell out of the top spot. Furtado's hit had spent six weeks on top. Timberlakes settled in for seven. Producer Timbaland had gone from virtually hitless to the biggest hit maker on the charts in just a few months. And he wasn't done. My Love, justin Timberlake's follow up hit, reached number one just three weeks after Sexy Back finished its run on top. With an innovative structure marked by swirling keyboards and a pulsating beat, My Love was the most critically acclaimed track on Future Sex Love Sounds, Pitchfork magazine named it their top single of 2006. My Love was Timbaland's most acclaimed production since his work with Missy Elliott, and it affirmed that he still had both the ear for a hit and the ability to make the left of center become the middle of the road. Rolling into 2007, productions by Timbaland just kept topping the charts. In February, another single by Nelly Furtado, the brooding, shimmering say It Right, reached number one. And was followed the very next week by a third number one from Justin the equally brooding what Goes Around Comes Around. Timbaland could be heard on both hits not just as their sonic craftsman, but even adding small vocal touches. Like a Hollywood auteur, Tim was making cameos across his body of work, so it stood to reason that this might be the time for him to try stepping out in front once again for the first time since the late 90s. After all the hits Timbaland had produced for Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, they were eager to return the favor, and they stepped up right away. Officially billed to Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtad and Justin Timberlake, give It To Me was the first single from Shock Value, Tim's first album under his own name in more than half a decade. Give It to me reached number one on the Hot 100 in April 2007, and shock value spent the rest of that year spinning off hits. These included the bubbling electro funk track the Way I Are, featuring singer Kerry Hilson, a number three hit in August, And then in November, the number two hit Apologize, Which in a flex was credited to Timbaland featuring One Republic. Tim had only subtly remixed this melodramatic ballad by One Republic, a Colorado Springs pop rock band fronted by singer songwriter Ryan Tedder. But One Republic didn't mind taking second billing to the producer who had given them their breakthrough. Over the next decade, Tedder and One Republic became frequent hit makers, scoring with such singles as Counting Stars.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Doing the Wrong Thing.

[Chris Melanphy]

The hits from Shock Value affirmed Timbaland's newfound clout. Talk about shock. Tim's second act was now even more fruitful than his first, as he was sought out by a range of artists across the spectrum of pop rock and R B, everyone from Rihanna.

[Narrator/Host]

To bjork.

[Chris Melanphy]

To duran duran. And even former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. Not all of these collaborations were hits, but their mere example existence, rounded out the image of Timbaland as the go to producer for the accessibly unconventional. The culmination of this wave came when Tim was hired to produce the last top five hit by a Certain Queen of Pop. Hesitated Madonna's Four Minutes, a song essentially about its running time and its own existence, was designed by Timbaland to be fit for a queen. With blaring synthesizers sounding a royal fanfare, drill team percussion and supporting vocals by both himself and Justin Timberlake, it was the lead single from Hard Candy the Chameleon, Like Madonna's latest effort to keep pace with hip hop era pop. When it peaked at number three in the spring of 2008, four minutes became Madonna's highest charting hit in eight years. For a follow up, Madonna went with a track produced by the other premier Virginia beach production team, the Neptunes Only. The track Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo produced for Madonna was not nearly as big a hit. Give it to Me only reached number 57 on the Hot 100.

[Narrator/Host]

This was a stark indication of how.

[Chris Melanphy]

Fortune had reversed between Timbaland and Forel in just a couple couple of years. The two never regarded their work as any kind of direct competition, but it was notable that often when one man's career was hot, the others hit a lull, as Tim's had in the early to mid aughts, while Pharrell's was ascendant. To be fair, the late aughts were not a total drought for Pharrell and Chad. In 2006, they scored one more chart topper as producers manning the boards for the ludicrous smash Money Maker.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

Shake your money maker like somebody about to pay you I see you on my radar.

[Chris Melanphy]

It hit number one on the Hot 100 in October of 06, sandwiched between, ironically enough, Sexy Back and My Love. But after Moneymaker, the Neptunes as a production team never scored another chart topping hit. For the rest of the decade, Pharrell and Chad would periodically issue new music under their nerd alter ego. But behind the scenes, Pharrell began to strike out on his own, both as a writer, producer and an artist. So while Timbaland was scoring another wave of hits in 2009 and 2010 with support from Justin Timberlake. And the then newly emerging rapper Drake, Pharrell Williams challenged himself with new solo projects. One of these took years to bear fruit on the charts. In 2010, at the invitation of film composer Hans Zimmer, Pharrell recorded the soundtrack of the hit animated film Despicable Me. Though he had produced songs for movie soundtracks in the past, this was Pharrell's first time composing most of a single film's soundtrack and score. Among the artists Williams brought in for Despicable Me was a vocalist he'd worked with half a decade earlier, Blue Eyed soul singer Robin Thicke. The Neptunes had produced a minor hit single for thicke back in 2005, And since then, Williams and Thicke had stayed in touch. For Despicable Me, Robin Thicke contributed vocals on a song called My Life. These 2010 collaborations would spin off in different directions for Pharrell. Three years later, when Despicable Me spawned a sequel, Williams was brought back to oversee another soundtrack, this time for Despicable Me 2. The film's directors issued a songwriting challenge to Pharrell. They needed a song for Gru, the film franchise's evil character who was in a state of uncharacteristic happiness. After nearly a dozen tries, Pharrell pulled off the assignment, a joyous slice of retro soul that he called simply Happy.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

If you feel like a room without.

[Narrator/Host]

A roof, clap along if you feel.

[Chris Melanphy]

Like happiness is the filmmakers were ecstatic over Pharrell's finished song. But Even as Despicable Me 2 topped the box office in the summer of 2013, the studio and soundtrack label Universal chose not to to promote Happy. Why? Well, because at that very moment, Pharrell Williams already had two songs on top of the charts, and one of them was led by the guy who'd helped Pharrell with the previous despic, Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. Where do We Begin? We talked about blurred lines, 2013's blockbuster song of the summer in our hits of the 2010s episode of hit Parade. The song is now infamous for being the subject of a precedent setting lawsuit in which the estate state of the late Marvin Gaye. Successfully convinced a jury that the song, primarily written by Pharrell, stole the atmosphere but not the melody of Gaye's 1977 number one hit, got to Give It Up Briefly. Blurred Lines was an intentional homage to the gay song. That was the point. You can't copyright Atmosphere. But I digress. Regardless of the legal headaches it later brought Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, Blurred Lines was a positively a massive song in 2013. Number one for 12 straight weeks. It was so massive, in fact, it held off this other more acclaimed song from reaching the top. It had to settle for number two. Get Lucky. French EDM duo Daft Punk's universally praised Grammy winning Disco Jam, with vocals by Pharrell and irresistible guitar by rock and R B legend Nile Rogers. For five weeks in the summer of 2013, Blurred Lines and Get Lucky held down the number one and number two SP spots. Giving Pharrell Williams, a vocalist and co songwriter on both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the Hot 100. Not since the peak of the Neptunes had Pharrell been so ubiquitous and never as a credited artist, even if on both tracks he was in a supporting role. Which brings us back to Happy, a song on which Pharrell was the only credited art. Even after Despicable Me 2 was out of theaters, Pharrell knew the song was too good to let go. In the fall of 2013, he dropped 24 hours of happy, a day long music video featuring scores of citizens and celebrities in Los Angeles singing along to his song. It was billed as the first ever 24 hour music video and the attention it drew began to propel Happy up the charts. By March of 2014, Happy had not only reached number one on the Hot 100, it had been nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. When Pharrell performed it on the 2014 Oscars telecast, he became the first person in history to have the number one song in the country as a nominee at the Academy Awards. Happy stayed at number one for 10 weeks and ranked as Billboard's top song of 2014. Pharrell relaunched his solo career, dropping a new album called Girl, which quickly spawned a top 40 follow up hit with Come Get It Bae, a duet with Miley Cyrus. Among the other guests on Pharrell's Girl album was Justin Timberlake, Who had of course always been more associated with producer Timbaland, but Justin had gotten Tim back on the charts too. In 2013, seven years after future Sex Love sounds, Timberlake returned with the album the 2020 Experience, produced by Timberland, and once again they scored a raft of hits, including the number three Jay Z collaboration Suit and Tie and the number two hit Mirrors, which benefited from Timbaland's most anthemic production. In essence, after more than a decade of normalizing the unusual, Pharrell and Timbaland, two men now in their early 40s responsible for the squarely mainstream hits, Happy and Mirrors had become kind of normcore themselves. Though Timbaland would never quite return to his heady days of the late aughts, his work was with Timberlake, and Jay Z gave him one last wave of hits in the mid-2010s, including Holy Grail, the title track from Jay's album Magna Carta. Holy Grail, Holy Grail and Pharrell, arguably his post. Neptune's hit streak just kept going, maybe not quite at the torrid pace of 2002 through 2005, but Pharrell had a pretty great 2010s producing hits for Beyonce, Ariana grande. And back.

[Narrator/Host]

As well as I'll bet.

[Chris Melanphy]

You didn't know this song was Pharrell's handiwork. Kendrick Lamar's now legendary 2015 Black Lives Matter anthem All right.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

Do you hear me?

[Chris Melanphy]

Do you feel me?

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

We gonna be all right.

[Chris Melanphy]

But all these waves of late career hits for Timbaland and Pharrell lead leave open one question. What ever happened to Missy Elliot? To answer that, we need to take one last trip back to the aughts.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Moulin Rouge. Where's all my soul sisters? Let me hear your flow, sister.

[Chris Melanphy]

As early as 2001, Missy was fulfilling her personal goal of producing hits not just for other artists, but primarily for other women. On the number one remake of Lady Marmalade from the film Moulin Rouge, credited to Christine, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Maya and Pink, the only vocalist not credited was its producer and mistress of ceremonies, missy Elliott. By 2005, Elliott was shifting her focus from her own material toward these collaborations. For Ciara, Missy co wrote the number two hit one two Steps and made a guest rap appearance. After Missy's 2005 album the Cookbook Again, her first album, mostly not produced by Timbaland, she stopped recording for herself altogether, but kept writing and producing for others, most especially other black women artists, giving them a leg up as others had done for her early in her career. For Kesha Cole, Elliott produced and guested on Let it go, a number seven hit in 2007, I don't want your.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Man cause I got it like that but it ain't even gotta be like that your man he be calling me back you say I'm fine in a matter of fact.

[Chris Melanphy]

For Jasmine Sullivan, Missy produced and rapped on need you'd bad. By the way, this was nearly a decade and a half before Sullivan would eventually win a Grammy for her album Hotels. Need you bad topped the R b chart in 2008. For Monica appear to Missy, who like her, had come up in the 90s, Elliott produced the R and B chart topping Everything to Me, Monica's first number one on that chart in seven years. And on the pop side of the dial, as we discussed in our remix episode of hit parade, in 2011, Missy agreed to do a remix of Katy Perry's Last Friday Night. That took that song the Last mile to number one on the Hot 100. It was around this time in the summer of 2011 that Elliott revealed that her absence from recording her own new material was largely the result of Graves disease, a thyroid disorder that caused her severe tremors while driving or even just holding a pen to write songs. Which makes it all the more admirable that Elliot had shifted her attention to assisting other artists. Katy Perry was particularly appreciative. A good deal of her material, with its synth bounces and allusions to vintage hip hop, owed more than a little to Missy Elliot. As thanks for Elliot's support When Katy Perry was invited to perform on the super bowl halftime show in 2015, she seeded nearly one third of her time on stage to Missy Elliott, who came out and performed her hits get your freak on, Work it and Lose. The halftime performance, watched by 118 million viewers, reacquainted the public with Missy Elliott's catalog and sent her digital sales skyrocketing. Taking advantage of this, later that year, Elliot released a new single, wtf? Parentheses where they from? Produced by none other than Pharrell Williams, it reached number 22 on the Hot 100, Elliott's first top 40 hit as a lead artist in over a decade. Despite the encouragement of Pharrell since wtf, Missy has still not issued a full length album. The cookbook from 2005 remains her last, and her six studio LPs have a perfect platinum streak. She has continued to make appearances on others tracks, such as her guest role on a Janet Jackson single in 2016.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Hit her with the he to the he to the how Ms. Jackson, oh.

[Chris Melanphy]

She and in 2018, on Ellen DeGeneres's talk show, Elliot surprised a super fan named Mary Halsey, who had earned viral fame with her flawless karaoke performance of.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Missy's classic work It's Me so good, I say blah blah blah. Work it. I need a glass of water. Boy oh boy, it's good to know y'.

[Narrator/Host]

All.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

Is it worth it?

[Chris Melanphy]

Will Missy Elliott ever record a fulllength album again? Since her successful treatment for graves disease, she seems to enjoy being an elder stateswoman of hip hop. In 2019, MTV finally acknowledged her singular influence by presenting her with their Video Vanguard Award, their highest commemorative honor. In the video package announcing Missy's award, she, Pharrell Williams and Timbaland all reminisced about their history together, both as musical visionaries and as natives of Virginia Beach.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

If I can't see the visual of what the video is gonna be, then that's a record that I just gotta throw away. I have to see a visual for that record. For me to feel like this is gonna be a hit.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted rappers)]

I was like wow, look what is coming out of Virginia Beach. She put her accent on the airwaves. That feels like something we never seen ourselves before or hurt ourselves before. Coming from ba, my sound did fit into what New York was doing, what west coast was doing. But Missy, she like nah, Tim, sometimes being wrong is right.

[Chris Melanphy]

Notably, that same night at the VMAs, the singer, rapper and iconoclast Lizzo was also up for several awards after a breakthrough year, and she too explained Missy's influence on her work.

[Artist/Vocalist (Various quoted singers)]

For me, being young and weird and chubby and a black girl and wanting to do music, I was like, wow, anything is possible.

[Chris Melanphy]

That night, Lizzo performed her rising single Truth Hurts, which had the same blend of bravado and sexual agency Missy Elliott had been instilling into her music for decades. The week after the 2019 VMAs, Truth Hurts rose to number one on the Hot 100. In essence, you could say the whole night was one long tribute to Missy, who received her video Vanguard Prize and took the stage to perform a medley of her material. These hits, once utterly alien sounding, many, produced by Timbaland and brought back to Life in the 2010 tens with the help of Pharrell Williams, these had been fully absorbed into the culture and they now sounded like classics. For one night, Time went backward as Missy put her thang down, flipped it and reversed it.

[Narrator/Host]

I hope you enjoy this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfeg.

[Chris Melanphy]

That's me.

[Narrator/Host]

My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly Hit Parade, the Bridge shows, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I talk to Jason King, chair of the NYU's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, about Pharrell Williams, Missy Elliott and Timbaland how they created their own style and moved pop, hip hop and R and B into a new era. To sign up for Slate plus and hear that show and all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hit parade plus Alicia Mont Montgomery is the Executive producer and Derek John the supervising narrative Producer of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one I'm Chris Melanfi. It.