Missy Elliott- Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

By: Greg Rector

Missy Elliott was elected today for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week. Deservedly so in my opinion. No woman has ever done as much for being so good at her craft. Be it as a rapper, a backup singer a producer or just making some damn fine rap music all on her own. From the time I heard Supa Dupa Fly onward Missy Elliott has defined herself as her own woman. Y’all younger than me can appreciate the Cardi B’s and others but no one touched Missy Elliott as far as I am concerned.

Missy At The Super Bowl

I was ecstatic when Missy Elliott performed with Katy Perry at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime performance. If we had pictures of that day you would have seen me on my feet singing and dancing to “Get Ur Freak On” “Work It” and “Lose Control.” No Super Bowl halftime show ever reached that many of an audience either with 119 million tuned in.

What Missy Does Better 

Missy isn’t into the “beef rap” noise out there with so many others. Instead, she has always worked together with others and that was evident from the get-go of her career. Be it with “Lady Marmalade” with Lil Kim Mya Pink and Christina Aguilera for the film Moulin Rouge and since then so many other collaborations with so many other females especially. As a producer, her work is just so well-defined and it always makes me happy.

Her Awards

No woman in rap or hip-hop has more Grammys than Missy Elliott has with her 4 wins. Her eight MTV Music awards, and her two American music awards. Six more BET awards and a Billboard Women In Music Award winner as an innovator. The Songwriters Hall of Fame Award is only the third one in rap history after Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupre. Her final award from the MTV Awards folks was the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award as well.

Her Charitable Work

Missy Elliott cares about the animals in her area in Portsmouth, Virginia home area. She started a successful campaign to get the pets spayed and or neutered and it was successful. She also joined MAC Cosmetics back in 2004 to raise money for AIDS victims. For her charitable work in Portsmouth Virginia alone, she was nominated to have her own statue to replace a former Confederate soldier monument. That did not happen but in her own good time in 2022 her hometown renamed a part of McLean Street as “Missy Elliott Boulevard.”

For My Money

No one else in hip-hop or rap music who is female can say they’ve done more for the support of the community as a whole. Missy Elliott deserves this award and I cannot wait to see her inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This woman has earned every last penny of my money to see her perform three times and many more if I can see her live I will always do so.