Legendary Virginia Beach rapper, record producer and songwriter Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott or Missy Elliot has become the first female Hip-Hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The rapper, who “was crucial to crafting the Virginia Beach sound that took over the airwaves in the late 1990s and 2000s”, will be inducted during the 38th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 3rd 2023 in Brooklyn, New York.
Besides the Hip-Hop pioneer, Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners will be inducted in the performer category.
With a rap career spanning over 26 years, Elliott is behind some of the most influential rap records of our times including “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, “Hot Boyz (Remix with Nas, Eve, & Q-Tip)”, “Work It”, “She’s A Bitch”, “WTF (Where They From)” with Pharrell Williams, “DripDemeanor”, “Strive” with A$ap Ferg & more.
“Elliott forged new paths for women in the music industry and society at large through her behind-the-scenes mastery and unapologetic ownership of her body, her sexual desires, and her Blackness in her music,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation said via press release.
“Missy Elliott’s debut album Supa Dupa Fly (1997) established her sound: futuristic production rife with jarring distortions under her inimitable rap style. She spit out onomatopoetic nonsense, sing-song, and jagged syncopations in a signature urban Southern drawl,” the Foundation said about Elliot’s historic body of work in Hip-Hop.
“On this and subsequent albums like Miss E…So Addictive! (2001) and her self-produced The Cookbook (2005), Elliott took the weird and made it not only accessible but the most sought-after sound in hip-hop and R&B.”
Besides her path-breaking sound in a “male-dominated genre”, Elliot’s “music video aesthetic proved as deliciously off-kilter as her music with body-morphing visual effects”. Further, “Elliott has produced and/or written songs for a veritable who’s-who of stars, from Aaliyah and Beyoncé to Eminem and Lizzo.”
Notably, Elliot was the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and to earn the MTV Video Vanguard Award. A four-time Grammy winner, Elliot has received two honorary doctorates and holds the record for the most Platinum albums by a woman rapper at six.
Listen to Missy Elliott’s debut rap album “Supa Dupa Fly” here.
