Back in the Day (Missy Elliott song)

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"Back In The Day"

Single by Missy Elliott featuring Jay-Z
From Under Construction
Released	2003
Format	Digital download 12" single
Genre	Hip-hop
Length	4:02
Label	Goldmind/Elektra
Writers	Missy Elliott Tim Mosley Shawn Carter
Producers	Timbaland
Director	-
Certification	-
Chart positions	#86 US R&B/Hip-hop
Missy Elliott singles chronology
"Pussycat" (2003)	"Back In The Day" (2003)	"Fighting Temptation" (2003)

"Back in the Day" is a 2003 hip-hop song by Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, featuring guest vocals from Jay-Z and Elliott protégé Tweet. The song appears on her 2002 album Under Construction and was at one time planned for release as a single. (It peaked at #86 on Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart in 2003 before being scrapped as a single.)

1 About the song
2 "Back in the Day" references
3 Credits

[edit] About the song

Produced by Elliott's main producer and longtime collaborator Timbaland, "Back In The Day" is an ode to the classic era of old school hip-hop, when the hip-hop culture was, Elliott sings, fun and peaceful, compared to the more violent scope of modern-day hip-hop. "Back in ihe day/hip-hop has changed", she sings. During the bridge of the song she even makes a point of referencing "Self-Destruction", a 1989 collaborative benefit single for peace featuring a number of that era's hip-hop stars. Incidentally, MC Lyte's verse from "Self-Destruction" is sampled on another of Under Construction's album tracks, "Funky Fresh Dressed".

Jay-Z contributes a rap verse in which he creatively references a number of hip-hop artists (for example, stating "I kill at will like solid water, dude", a reference to Ice Cube's 1990 EP Kill At Will). At one point during his verse, Jay-Z raps "so fuck Chuck Phillips and Bill O'Reilly/if they try to stop hip-hop, we all gon' rally", a reference to two of hip-hop's most vocal critics.