This Is Not a Test!

Nobody outside the studio knew it at the time, but this would be Missy Elliott’s last big hurrah with Timbaland before they mutually realized they couldn’t push each others’ creative limits any further. And maybe you can hear the strain in This Is Not A Test! if you listen a certain way; it does feel surprisingly caught in a holding pattern considering it’s got so many A-list guests (including some now persona non grata, though the logey ballad “Dats What I’m Talkin About” would be thoroughly skippable even if you swapped in someone less loathsome for R. Kelly). But just because the Missy/Tim partnership sounds like it downshifted into first gear doesn’t mean they can’t still get some juice just from revving the engine. The classic-rap trad feints of Under Construction run deeper while steering clear of the most obvious shell-toed cliches, with Tim nodding to dance music’s Kraftwerkian ancestry in hi-tech international-sound ways Arthur Baker never dreamed of. The skittery, skeletal electro of doppler-effect Jay-Z feature “Wake Up” is like the photonegative of Tim’s other great ’03 Hova beat (there’s no dirty shoulders in the cleanroom), “Pass That Dutch” does a ton with just a bunch of handclaps and bass throbs, and “Let It Bump” somehow does even more with even less — it’s minimalist instrumentation with maximum energy. And if those beats’ energy flags to mid-tempo a bit too often, Missy’s expressive character — insistently raunchy one moment, empathetic and dream-encouraging the next — still runs through one of the liveliest voices of the era.