The Cookbook
The Cookbook is the sixth studio album by American rapper Missy Elliott, released on July 4, 2005, by The Goldmind Inc. and Atlantic Records in Germany and the United Kingdom, and on July 5 in the United States and Japan. To date, it is her final long play studio effort.
The Cookbook
July 4, 2005
November 2004–March 2005
63:13
- Missy Elliott
- Associates
- The Avila Brothers
- Bangladesh
- Craig Brockman
- Warryn Campbell
- El Loco
- Qur'an H. Goodman
- Rich Harrison
- Keith Lewis
- Saint Nick
- Scott Storch
- Timbaland
- Rhemario Webber
- The Neptunes
Three singles were released from the album; the first, "Lose Control", was released on May 27, 2005, and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and charted well internationally. The second single, "Teary Eyed", was released on August 8, 2005, and failed to chart on any Billboard chart and charted low in other countries. The third single, "We Run This", was released on February 21, 2006, and peaked at number forty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted moderately well internationally.
The album received generally favorable reviews from critics. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, ultimately losing to Kanye West's Late Registration.[1] The music video for "Lose Control", directed by Dave Meyers won the Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video.
Background[edit]
The title The Cookbook derived of Elliott feeling "no two records are going to sound alike; each record has its own spices and herbs. Each record is cooking up a hot recipe for a hot album."[2] The black and white cover features Elliott posing with a vintage microphone in a 1920s juke joint. She explained the cover, saying, "I wanted people to see I was taking music back to the roots—not just hip hop, but our ancestors. Whether they was on railroad tracks or cooking in somebody's kitchen, they was always singing."[2]
In an interview with Billboard magazine, Elliott said, "I really do think this is my best album. I was in a really great space with this album. I wasn't in a great space with some of the other albums I've done." She went on to say, "I played Lil' Kim the album the other day, and she told me it was incredible and that there was not one song on it that she didn't like."[3]
Recording[edit]
In January 2005, it was revealed Elliott had been working on a new album.[4] Two months later, Ciara confirmed she would appear on the album, singing and rapping on the potential first untitled single at the time.[5] Elliott worked on The Cookbook with such producers as the Neptunes, Rich Harrison and Scott Storch. The album included only two songs produced by Timbaland, who produced most or all songs on Elliott's previous albums. She explained, "Me and Tim, this like our sixth album, so if we go any further left, we gonna be on Mars somewhere. We've done everything it is to do. I think both of us came to a spot where we didn't know where to go with each other."[2] She said Timbaland was very involved with the album, supporting or opposing certain producers. Elliott went on to say, "I was eight songs deep and I let Tim listen and he was like, 'Nah, you're going in the wrong direction. You trippin'.' I had to go back in the studio and come up with new records. [When he heard those], he was like, 'This is the Missy people are listening to.'"[2]
Singles[edit]
The first, "Lose Control", was released on May 27, 2005, and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, number six on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number two on the Billboard Pop 100.[6][7][8] The single also peaked at number two on the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart and in the top ten in four other countries.[9] A Dave Meyers-directed promotional video accompanied the song; it was the most played video on BET and MTV2 and second most played video in the United States.[10] It went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, while the song itself received a nomination for Best Rap Song.[11]
The second single, "Teary Eyed", was released on August 8, 2005; it failed to chart except in Australia and Switzerland.[12] The music video for the song was directed by Antti J. Jokinen and was filmed "like a movie". It features Elliott responding to a relationship that had gone wrong.[13]
The third single, "We Run This", was released on February 21, 2006, and peaked at number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 39 on the Billboard Pop 100[14][15] and peaked in the top forty in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.[16] An edited version of the song was used as the theme song for the gymnastics-themed film Stick It, as well as for the music video, which was directed by Dave Meyers. The video features a cameo by gold-medalist Dominique Dawes as Elliott's gymnastics coach, with scenes from the film being used throughout the video.[17] The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance.[18]
Commercial performance[edit]
The Cookbook debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 176,000 copies in the first week of release.[35] In its second week, the album dropped to number seven on the chart, selling an additional 65,000 copies.[36] On September 15, 2005, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States.[37] On January 22, 2022, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 1,000,000 copies in the United States. As of December 2023, the album has sold 1,050,000 copies in the US.[38] The Cookbook peaked in the top thirty in Australia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
Sample credits