--- title: Missy Elliott Loves This Woman's Viral Cover of Work It description: A Rhode Island woman found a fan in Missy Elliott after the iconic rapper saw a video of her covering "Work It." canonical: https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-08T22:11:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:13.958Z og:title: Missy Elliott Loves This Woman's Viral Cover of 'Work It' og:description: Let her work it og:url: https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cc5fa8d5a60a824/69893756db2987c6bf260618/missy-elliott-rhode-island-woman-work-it-viral-tweet.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2018 Essence Festival - Day 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Missy Elliott Loves This Woman's Viral Cover of 'Work It' twitter:description: Let her work it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cc5fa8d5a60a824/69893756db2987c6bf260618/missy-elliott-rhode-island-woman-work-it-viral-tweet.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No One's Enjoying This Woman's Viral Cover of 'Work It' More Than Missy Elliott  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 8, 2018 10:11 PM UTC  NEW ORLEANS, LA - JULY 07: Missy Elliott performs at the 2018 Essence Music Festival at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on July 7, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS, LA - JULY 07: Missy Elliott performs at the 2018 Essence Music Festival at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on July 7, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images)Erika Goldring—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 8, 2018 10:11 PM UTC A Rhode Island woman found a fan in [Missy Elliott](http://time.com/5064051/missy-elliot-essence-black-women-in-music-honoree/) after the iconic rapper saw a viral video of her covering “Work It.” Elliott took to her[ Twitter](http://time.com/5360638/twitter-alex-jones-ban-dorsey/) on Wednesday to sing her praises after seeing a video of [Mary Halsey](https://www.facebook.com/mary.halsey.5/videos%5Fby) 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. > [](https://twitter.com/MissyElliott/status/1027061438358151168) > [](https://twitter.com/MissyElliott/status/1027062142552432640) > [](https://twitter.com/Markus%5FEllis/status/1027079030120620034) > [](https://twitter.com/juliayylien/status/1027124660595437568) > [](https://twitter.com/LecarraM/status/1027158567055511552) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/"},"headline":"No One's Enjoying This Woman's Viral Cover of 'Work It' More Than Missy Elliott","datePublished":"2018-08-08T22:11:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:13.958Z","description":"Let me work it","url":"https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cc5fa8d5a60a824/69893756db2987c6bf260618/missy-elliott-rhode-island-woman-work-it-viral-tweet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cc5fa8d5a60a824/69893756db2987c6bf260618/missy-elliott-rhode-island-woman-work-it-viral-tweet.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2018 Essence Festival - Day 2","caption":"2018 Essence Festival - Day 2","creditText":"Erika Goldring—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5361784/missy-elliot-cover/","name":"No One's Enjoying This Woman's Viral Cover of 'Work It' More Than Missy Elliott"}}]}] ```