“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real?” This is act 1 of The Matrixand Morpheus lays out the rules of reality for Keanu Reeves’ phlegmatic protagonist, offering him a choice. Neo slowly touches a mirror, liquid silver crawling up his arm, engulfing him, ripping him from the simulated life he lived as reality and bringing him into the “real” world – a post-Earth. -AI-controlled apocalyptic. The Wachowskis’ universe of brain-linking technology and teleportation phone booths warped everyone’s perception of reality in 1999. Now imagine Missy Elliott I’m watching it for the first time. It was madness, even for an artist with a similarly twisted and futuristic approach to her craft. This is how she found a framework for her second album.

By this point, Missy had proven herself to be a hip-hop anomaly in a rapidly digitalizing world. The first radios of the year 2000 were largely iterative of the boundary-pushing sound that it and Timbaland created during its debut in 1997, Supa Dupa Fly. This album, as well as the staccato beat-box rhythms on AaliyahIt is One in a millionmade the Virginia duo stand out in a sea of ​​samplers, establishing them as the industry’s sci-fi eccentrics creating standout, pop-heavy tracks. Pop music suddenly sounded like a broken dial-up Internet connection, with R&B artists like Ginuwine, Total, SWVand 702 serving as fluid numbers for Missy and Timbaland’s craziest ideas. In the wake of other producers screening their style, DA Real world It was an opportunity for Missy to stop the assembly line and build her myth, drawing direct inspiration from The Matrix. “I am Morpheus,” a twisted voice (presumably Timbaland) says in the album’s intro to remind people (as if they needed it) that he and Missy could constantly change reality.

Although darker and less fanciful in tone than Supa Dupa Flyhis second album is driven by the same fluid melodies and myriad flows, with many of the beats coming from sounds Timbaland collected after a trip to Japan. THE Matrix the framing here is mostly smoke and mirrors, lightly peppered with interludes. But the key premise of the film – the idea of ​​transcending binaries – likely resonated with Missy and aligns with this project’s theme of women breaking free from reductive labels. During interviews for The real worldMissy has often highlighted a double standard that seems cliché today: aggressive men are considered bosses, while women of the same ilk are considered sluts or divas. The self-proclaimed shy girl also opened up about putting herself in “slut mode” to get things done. The real world is her own personal rebellion, her egalitarian playground where she can rub shoulders alongside her male peers (Big Boi, Eminem, Redman, Juvenile, BG), demanding fairness in the game while leaving room for women in his orbit (Lil Mo, Aaliyah, Lil’ Kim, Da Brat, Lady Saw, Nicole Wray) to express their frustrations over a Timbaland beat.