![2018 Essence Festival - Day 2 2018 Essence Festival - Day 2](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/missy-elliott-rhode-island-woman-work-it-viral-tweet.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By Cady Lang
A Rhode Island woman found a fan in Missy Elliott after the iconic rapper saw a viral video of her covering “Work It.”
Elliott took to her Twitter on Wednesday to sing her praises after seeing a video of Mary Halsey doing a spot-on karaoke rendition of Elliott’s cult classic song, calling Halsey her “funky white sister.”
In the clip, Halsey expertly manages to keep up with Elliott’s notoriously tricky lyrics, some of which are actual phrases spoken backwards. Elliott’s tweet received over 16,000 retweets and garnered over 1.4 comments from her fans and followers, who were as impressed with Halsey’s skills as Elliott was.
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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com