Spring '08 LPs From Madonna, Coldplay, The Roots, Mudcrutch, Elvis Costello : Rolling Stone

Missy Elliott

Title TBD 6/17

Missy Elliott knew the beats on her seventh album were hot when the cops showed up at her New Jersey home studio while she was recording. "The music was banging up against the window, and the dogs were barking — I set off all the alarms!" says the rapper, who would roll out of bed at 4 a.m. to lay down the record's hyper Eighties-influenced tunes. Elliott — who teamed up with her longtime collaborator Timbaland — even helms a vocoder on the slinky R&B jam "Love." "I'm tapping into a different side of Missy," she says. "You ain't always gotta dance. You can just rock from side to side."