Concluding my look at the albums of 2005…
I’m wrapping up my look at 2005 with one of the year’s best rap albums. No, not Kanye West’s Late Registration, which is indeed a great album but one by an artist I’d rather not give the airtime.
Instead, I’m featuring The Cookbook, the last full-length studio release by Missy Elliott. This was Elliott’s sixth album and, according to many critics, her best.
Missy Elliott has released six Platinum albums and 74 singles (44 as a featured performer) without reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
She’s had five top ten singles as a solo artist and six as a feature. But what sets her apart and earns her inclusion in this list is how close she came to #1 and for how long. While Creedence Clearwater Revival have had the most songs at #2 without a #1 hit, Missy Elliott has spent the most weeks there.
Hip-hop artists have been a part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5 broke that ceiling in 2007. Nine other rap artists have been inducted since then, but it wasn’t until this year that a female hip-hop act made the cut. Appropriately, the woman to break that ground is Missy Elliott, entering the Hall in her first year of eligibility.
Going by the criteria I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Elliott is a no-brainer for inclusion in the Hall. Unless you believe hip-hop has no place in the institution whatsoever — an argument that clearly isn’t accepted by the Hall itself — I can’t see a case against inviting her.
Missy Elliott is one of the top female hip-hop artists of all time, beloved to this day though she hasn’t released an album in 13 years. In just the past few years, she won raves for popping up in both Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show and Michelle Obama’s episode of ‘Carpool Karaoke.’
Back in 2001, she released her third album, the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful Miss E… So Addictive. With Timbaland producing, Missy assembled a collection of sexy, club-friendly raps and sultry R&B ballads.
Though Kendrick Lamar dominated this year’s Pazz & Jop poll, the runner-up didn’t fare too badly. Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit came in second on the list of top albums and garnered enough votes to take first place in most non-Kendrick Lamar years.
The Aussie’s first single, ‘Pedestrian at Best,’ takes the fifth spot in the singles poll. I featured it last April as part of my track-by-track review of the album.
Meet Me In Montauk 