Eventually I ended up in the back of a cab in Bushwick, listening to the song on repeat. The perfect breakup song must also be a sort of theater, where the singer becomes the character fully. The very cadence of the song, her voice, sonically pristine, still spells out a certain longing and despair. It feels as if the song were creating its own black hole when it was made. Who can escape the condensed emotional singularity of a breakup song?

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Persons: You’ve, I’d, she’s, ’, Nicole Wray, ”, —, Missy Elliott, Lady Wray, autotune Locations: Oakland, New York, Bushwick, California, counterpoise