Missy Elliott is set to become the first female rapper in history to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2023
Written by Brooklyn Masuku on 4 May, 2023
Ground-breaking rapper Missy Elliott, the late English chart-topper George Michael and rap-rock change-makers Rage Against the Machine are among this year’s inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, organizers announced on Wednesday.
It’s times I have gotten on line & seen your irrelevant your a flop your washed up & it would crush me at times🥺BUT God you made me STRONG I kept going & you allowed my decades of WORK to SPEAK 4 itself🙏🏾 I am HUMBLED thank you all my Supporters💜 I LOVE YOU💜 pic.twitter.com/gkHUttWoU5
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) May 3, 2023
Eclectic rock experimentalist Kate Bush will also be inducted, as country icon Willie Nelson, rock-folk powerhouse Sheryl Crow and R&B group The Spinners round out 2023’s class of new members.
The Cleveland, Ohio, institution’s chairman, John Sykes, emphasized that this year’s crop of musicians “reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define Rock & Roll,” and coincides with a milestone year that includes the 50th anniversary of the hip-hop genre and country icon Nelson’s 90th birthday.
Crow, Elliott, Michael, and Nelson were on the ballot for induction into the prestigious music pantheon for their first time. Rap innovator Elliott made the cut in her first year of eligibility.
Elliott is the only artist in this crop to have made it into the hall in her first year of eligibility, being 25 years out from her first commercial recording. But Crow and Michael joined Elliott in scoring with voters in their first appearances on the ballot.
Notes Sykes, “Missy Elliott got in first ballot, just like Eminem got in first ballot last year and Jay-Z the year before. So, if there’s a throughline we’re seeing, it shows the power of hip-hop music culture now, as if we didn’t know it already, as far as how quickly these artists are being recognized on the first ballot.”
Artists can be inducted 25 years after their first commercial music release.
They are voted on by a body of more than 1,000 artists, music historians and industry veterans.
The new honourees will be formally inducted on November 3 in the Rock Hall’s annual concert ceremony, which this year will return to Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre.
