New music: Spice feat. Missy Elliott – Fun

It's hard to fathom that Missy Elliott is 40 years old and that her last album was released over six years ago. The former is a surprise because there's always been a youthful exuberance to everything she does (plus, she seems to live in a tracksuit) and the latter because there was a time around the end of the 90s and the start of the noughties where a year didn't go by without at least one killer single (Get Ur Freak On and Work It: surely two of the best tracks of recent years?). In June it was announced that Elliott had been battling Graves' disease, an illness which left her exhausted and unable, she said, to even hold a pen to write. So it's welcome news that there's some new music to enjoy, even if it's only a guest spot on someone else's song. Spice is a Jamaican dancehall star and the appropriately named Fun was initially completed sans Elliott, with the rapper adding an extra verse and the song's hook, much to Spice's surprise. "One day my manager played the song for me, and I didn't know about the remix, and when I heard Missy on it, I was over the roof," she told the Jamaica Star. "Missy ripped it up. The beat is a dancehall beat, it's not trying to be hip-hop and she did well on it." For the video, Spice frolics in a giant paddling pool, rides a horse and dances in front of a giant bottle. Much like we did at the family BBQ at the weekend.