Essence has announced Missy Elliott as their 2018 Black Women in Music honoree due to her influential work and dedication to black music culture over the past two decades. The awards show will take place on January 25th at Highline Ballroom in New York City. Annually for the past seven years, Essence’s ‘Black Women in Music’ acknowledges the accomplishments of women who have proven influential ground in their niches.
The Misdemeanor set a new principle for the outlook of black women in music, starting from her 1997 solo debut Supa Dupa Fly. The visuals to the album’s hit singles “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and “Sock It 2 Me” set in stone the famed abstract perception of Missy’s creativity. She was highly instrumental in curating the works of the late Aaliyah as a noted songwriter. Missy’s sense of nonconformity is notably influential in the development of hip-hop, R&B, and pop music in the millennium, especially with her hand in the chart hitting successes of elites such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige and several more class-acts.
