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We Finally Know What Missy Elliott Was Saying In "Work It"

Carolyn L. Todd
August 27, 2019, 3:13 PM
Fifteen years ago, George W. Bush was still in his first term as president, The Bachelor was a brand new show, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were still married, and people were obsessed with Missy Elliott's "Work It." The song reached no. 2 on the Billboard charts, while the video snagged her MTV's Video of the Year award at the VMAs. Despite the fact that people loved the song lots of people had no idea what Elliott was saying in the jumbled hook of the Timbaland-produced track (although Elliott's truest fans knew exactly what was up). Now, all these years later, the realization of what exactly Elliott said in that line is dawning on those who've been in the dark for years, as BuzzFeed first noted.
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Here's the lyric in question: "I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it/Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup I." Figure it out? Yeah, she literally just reversed the previous line. And people. Are. Shook. Folks are taking to Twitter to express their utter disbelief at the paradigm-shifting revelation, mostly via GIFs of shocked faces.
Obviously, though, everyone who already knew this fact is, like, "come on, people." One person wrote, "Wait people actually didn't know that missy Elliott literally flipped and reversed her lyrics in her iconic song? SMMFH." Another tweeted, anyone who didn't get that doesn't deserve Missy Elliott." Harsh.
Anyhow, thanks for giving us all something to talk about, Missy — a decade-and-a-half after the fact. Treat yourself and enjoy the video in full, i.e. one of the greatest things to emerge from 2002, and check out the funniest tweets below.
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