Missy Elliot becomes 1st Female Rapper to Get Into the Songwriters Hall of Fame

By
Amanda C
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Missy Elliott at The Yellow Ball in September 2018
Missy Elliott at The Yellow Ball in September 2018. Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Variety/REX/Shutterstock (9878528co)

Missy Elliot will become the first female rapper to join the Songwriters Hall of Fame after she was honored to join the list of celebrated songwriters on Saturday.

The “Get ur Freak On” artist was announced to join the HOF on CBS This Morning in the presence of Hall of Fame Chairman Nile Rodgers. She becomes only the second rapper to join that list since Jay Z.

“I am so humbly grateful to now be inducted,” the rapper said through her twitter account. She also congratulated other nominees in the list, saying “I want to congratulate all the amazing songwriters who have been inducted into the 2019 “Song Writers Hall of Fame also those who were nominated because their body of work is amazing.”

Nile Rodgers, who confirmed Elliot’s nomination called her “one of his best song writers of all time.”

“I’ve written with a lot of women songwriters, but not nearly enough. That’s sort of my secret goal—I want to have more women songwriters,” he said. “Elliott was one of my favorite writers of all time.”

Elliot made her debut into rap in 1997 and won her first Grammy with “Get Ur Freak On” in 2001. She has a long list of writing credits, including works with Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston and Jennifer Hudson.