The documentaries, events, and televised performances commemorating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary have given the culture’s pioneers with their long-deserved flowers. On Friday, November 3, Missy Elliott added another milestone to the culture’s impact after becoming the first female rapper to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
During the ceremony, Queen Latifah took the stage at the Barclays Center to introduce her longtime friend. “Trust me, nothing sounded the same after Missy came on the scene,”said Latifah. “Nothing….everything changed – the bass lines changed, the pockets changed, the cadence, the writing. And that’s because Missy has always been a futurist, someone who’s always looking ahead.”
During Missy’s speech, she referred to several of the genre’s trailblazers, including Flavor Flav, Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa), and her longtime friend and collaborator Timbaland.
“There’s so many of y’all that are so legendary in here,” Elliott told the crowd. “This is the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. And so this is deeper than me just being up here. I was telling Robin [Roberts], you just feel like it’s so far to reach when you in the hip-hop world, and to be standing here, it means so much to me.”
For her live set, Missy performed a medley of her hits “Get Ur Freak Out,” “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” “Work It,” “Pass That Dutch,” and “Lose Control.”