It’s been 15 years since Missy Elliott dropped “Work It,” her hit song that had teens across the country speaking gibberish in an attempt to imitate her catchy-as-hell hook.
But, for reasons only the internet gods understand, people are just now realizing what Missy was actually saying in her song.
You know the part we’re talking about:
Is it worth it? Let me work it.
I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it
Itsyerdinnaflipnwod......... ?!?!?!
On Friday, Missy tweeted a shout-out to her fans who finally noticed her tongue-twisting hook.
“Yup, I FLIPPED IT & REVERSED IT,” she wrote, along with a clip of the famous line. “Go to snap. Try it.”
It’s not as mysterious as everyone’s making it out to be.
If you record the hook to “Work It” on Snapchat, then put the rewind filter on, you’ll see that Missy did exactly what she said she’d do. That line of gibberish is actually the line “I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it” played in reverse.
You can also see it by looking up the lyrics to the song:
I put my thing down flip it and reverse it
Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup I
A lot of people did not know how to handle this new information.
After the lyric went viral, resurrecting a classic hip-hop jam from 2002, the internet was split between those whose minds were blown and those who let out a collective, “DUH.”
No matter where you stand on this “revelation,” let’s all agree on one thing. Missy Elliott is the real MVP for having us sound like this for two and a half decades: