“Lose Control” by Missy Elliott (ft. Ciara and Fatman Scoop)

Missy Elliot’s “Lose Control” is a dance song, a fact you’ve probably gathered even if you’re familiar with this track considering the title and artists involved. Ciara explained it as being about “how music makes you feel and lose control”, thus the title. 

And such is pretty much a self-explanatory concept, which we have covered many times before via songs presented by pop artists, hip-hoppers, etc.

Fatman Scoop

Fatman Scoop sets the scene in the intro by giving a shoutout to Missy Elliott, whom he refers to therein as “Misdemeanor”. He uses the titular phrase three times and again is getting the crowd amped, even if he may not actually mention the word dance or any other that is directly synonymous with it at this point. 

And before closing out the stanza, the well-known party promoter also gives a shoutout to himself. 

Missy Elliot

Then as far as Missy’s verses go, it would perhaps be best to break them down segment by segment. The first one starts off by the vocalist giving various acknowledgements of her physical attractiveness. Most notably, in terms of the subject matter at hand, would be her “rump”, considering its tendency to ‘shake both ways’. 

Missy then drops a number of terse metaphors, each ultimately pointing to her ability to rock the house. Next comes acknowledgements of her wealth, which is manifest by the songstress owning more than one really-expensive car. 

Then Elliott gives a shoutout to her “long [hair] weave”, which is actually “sewed in”. And she once again brings up the topic of “money”, that not pertaining to herself per se. Rather she is encouraging the addressee to “make that money”. And it is possible, taking into account the wording of the last two lines, that in that regard she may be addressing someone(s) like a stripper, i.e. those who actually generating income from “bouncing” their “booty”.

The beginning of the second verse serves more directly as an encouragement to dance, with Missy even giving some instructions in that regard. For instance, ‘waving your hands and screaming’ is encouraged. 

Well actually, ‘waving your hands and screaming’ is not exactly what we would call dancing. So more to the point is the general admonishment to “lose control”, as explained earlier. And with that thought in mind, the vocalist relatedly urges the smokers in the house to light up their spliffs, we would presume.

Inebriated audience members are also instructed to “stand up” and get involved. Further directions include ‘taking somebody by the waist’ and ‘throwing it in their face’. And whereas we don’t know exactly what “it” is, we will presume, generally speaking, such a reference to one’s dancing skills or what have you. 

However, based on the lyrical style of the outro, which we will get to briefly, “it” may also be a reference to a female’s derriere. And again, underneath it all is this idea of giving yourself over to the music, like a “hypnotic robotic” as Missy puts it – you know, synchronized, not memorized.

Ciara

After the second verse all three vocalists, led by Ciara, deliver the song’s hook and second breakdown. But prior to that, Missy is also primarily responsible for holding down the bridge.  And we can say that all three passages serve fundamentally the same purpose. 

And that would be akin to encouraging those in the house who may be idling on the sidelines to get on the dance floor instead.

Conclusion

The song ultimately concludes with the outro which, like the intro, is rendered by Fatman Scoop.  And it runs along the same vein as the intro, but this time around in addition to “Misdemeanor” he also gives a shoutout to Ciara or “Ci”, as she referred to at times. 

Another notable difference though is that instead of generally encouraging everyone to dance, in this instance Fatman more squarely focuses on the female members of the audience. And yes, even though his initial emphasis in that regard is getting to ‘move their arms’, in quintessential hip-hop fashion he later gets to advising them to “pop” and “shake” their booties, though he doesn’t say it so explicitly.

So even though we’ve given a detailed explanation of “Lose Control”, there is really nothing complicated or surprising about it.  In other words, the listener is treated exactly what he or she would expect – an uninterrupted stimulus to dance in a completely carefree manner – given the theme of the song and the artists who are responsible for delivering it.

“Lose Control” Facts

Primary Artist(s): Missy Elliott
Featured Artist(s): Ciara and Fatman Scoop
Album/EP: “The Cookbook”

 Was “Lose Control” a single release?

Yes. The song was a single form Missy’s 2005 album, “The Cookbook”. Missy and her team officially released “Lose Control” on May 23 of 2005.

Writing 

It was written by Missy herself, Ciara Harris and Isaac Freeman.

Production

“Lose Control” was produced by Missy Elliott.

Genre(s)

• Hip hop
• Miami bass
• Dance

Awards/Honors

“Lose Control” won a Grammy for ‘Best Rap Song”. Its music video, on the other hand, won “Best Hip-Hop Video” and “Best Dance Video” at the MTV Video Music Awards out of six nominations.

Chart Performance

• US – 3
• UK – 7
• New Zealand – 2
• Finland – 7
• Denmark – 6
• Australia – 7

Sampling

• Stulp Fiction – “Lose Control” (2016)
• The Kleptones – “Welcome Back” (2010)
• SwuM. – “Drop Top” (2018)
• Sammy Bananas – “Work Me” (2008)
• MessyPandas – “Shes So Cute” (2016)
• Girl Talk – “Give and Go” (2006)
• Black Violin – “Lose Control” (2006)