2001: #5 - "Get Ur Freak On"

As inescapable as it was in late 2001, and as inescapable it was in late 2009 on Songs of the Decade lists, "Get Ur Freak On", with only 700,000 YouTube views to date, seems to have been slightly forgotten over the years. Perhaps modern music fans have all forgotten, after she became a Top 40 princess for the first half of the 00's, then experienced a half-decade of obscurity, how bad-ass Missy could be on the mic as a legitimate rapper.

Or maybe music fans grew tired of the once innovative but now mildly grating hook, especially after the bhangra style had been used and abused so heavily in the early part of the decade. That's hard to believe though, because even in hindsight, even after all the imitators, it still sounds far, far from passe.

Looking back, it's hard to believe it was a hit at all, being that its main percussion is the tabla, and the only Western instrumentation are keys that sound like cartoon laser guns - not exactly the type of stuff that'll typically get car stereos thumping. It was all very unique stuff to be sure, even for Timbaland, but it's Missy who really keeps us coming back, even after nearly 9 years, after the crazy oddness of the beat had wormed its way into our brains forever, for better or worse.

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