With few hit singles to speak of and longtime collaborator Timbaland producing only two tracks, it's easy to see Missy Elliott's sixth album as a step sideways. Though it's light on future-shock eccentricity, The Cookbook finds Elliott as confident as ever, resurrecting classic hip-hop and electro grooves for "Lose Control" and the shit-hot "We Run This." On cuts like "Click Clack," Elliott lets the beat come to her, reminding us she's as singular a rhymer as she is a stylish hitmaker.

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