That's a bold statement from an MC that hasn't released a full-length since 2005 and a producer whose most recent output is a scattershot series of collaboration records. But that's how devoted fans have been to the Elliot/Timbaland chemistry -- when they work their together, their hits hit harder than just about anyone's.

Unfortunately, Elliot might have spoken too soon -- neither of these tracks sound like obvious hits out of the gate. Of course, any news that Missy Elliott is back to rapping and that her long-awaited full length "Block Party" might be impending is most welcome. But all of her strengths -- the vocal dexterity, sexed-up swagger and sheer amount of fun she sounds like she has rapping -- are almost absent from these gothic, heavy tracks.

"9th Inning" is supposed to be Elliott's statement of purpose here: "2012 there be no games, / real rap, real bars, I’m not playing." After a year when Nicki Minaj spent half her album diving into the champagne bubble bath of radio trance and Azealia Banks is denying she's even a rapper at all, it's refreshing to have Elliott back making steely threats to own hip-hop again.

But this track isn't it --- the piano flurry and soggy minor-key churn play exactly against what she does best, which is put her vocal charisma front and center. "9th Inning" is both too busy and too turgid to ever let her take off, and that's a mistake for an artist as fun to listen to as Elliott.

All the talk of the duo's boundless innovation and hit-making prowess is forever warranted. Elliott has one gold and five platinum albums that never sounded like less than a space-age hip-hop utopia. But these tracks should be showing, not telling, their brilliance -- and these singles feel more like lectures than jams.