Missy Elliott kicked off her comeback when she joined Katy Perry on stage at last year’s Super Bowl halftime show, performing a surprise medley of her hits “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” and “Lose Control.”
A year later, the rap queen has proved she’s still got game by dropping new single “Pep Rally” on the day of the Super Bowl and promoting it with a high-profile appearance in Amazon’s Super Bowl TV commercial. Appropriately enough, the horn-fuelled rap banger “Pep Rally” is filled with sporting references as Missy tells us “We get crackin’ like we up at the Super Bowl” before issuing an instruction to dance: “When this song come on, bounce your ass like a basketball.”
Like last year’s Pharrell-produced comeback track “WTF (Where They From),” Pep Rally crackles with Missy’s renewed energy and shows off a flow that’s still fierce and unmistakable. “The football team be winning get your score on/ Oh yeah, this is a pep rally,” she spits on the third verse. Meanwhile, Missy shows her playful side by appearing alongside Alec Baldwin, Jason Schwartzman and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino in Amazon’s tongue-in-cheek Super Bowl ad. When Baldwin notes that “we have over a hundred million people watching us right now,” Missy’s ears prick up and she says: “A hundred million people? Alexa [Amazon’s new voice-recognition tech], release that new single “Pep Rally” by Missy Elliott!” before busting a few moves to her tune.
Someone needs to make this moment into a GIF right away.
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Text Nick Levine
Image and video courtesy The Goldmind, Inc./Atlantic Records and Amazon