Lyrics
A portion of the song's lyrics helped popularize the slang term "badonkadonk" with mainstream audiences ("Love the way my ass go bum-bump-bum-bump-bump/Keep your eyes on my bum-bump-bum-bump-bump/And think you can handle this badonk-a-donk-donk").
During the chorus, the lyric "I put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it" is simply played backwards, a part many mistakenly assumed to be gibberish. In the middle of the song, after the lyric "Listen up close while I take you backwards", the lyric "Watch the way Missy like to take it backwards" is also played in reverse. This vocal reversing trend made it to several of her productions during the following years.
Also, in the song's chorus, an elephant trumpeting is heard to hide a sexual reference ("If you got a big (elephant trumpet), let me search it"). In both the explicit and edited versions, the song uses onomatopoeia such as "ra-ta-ta-ta" and "buboomp buboomp boomp" to refer to sexual bodily moves.
Read more about this topic: Work It (Missy Elliott Song)
Famous quotes containing the word lyrics:
“Chad and I always look for deeper meanings; we can analyze Beastie Boys lyrics for hours.”
—Amy Stewart (b. 1975)