Missy Elliott has been nominated for the 2019 Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Elliott is the first female rapper to be nominated for the honor, according to The Associated Press, which received a list of the nominees prior to the hall’s official announcement.
The rapper, songwriter and producer, born Melissa Elliott, said via Twitter on Wednesday that she was “humbly grateful to be nominated.”
Elliott has a long history of breaking barriers in the music industry, and is known for celebrating body and sex positivity and female empowerment in her lyrics and videos. She has won multiple Grammys and written or produced songs for an impressive list of artists, including Whitney Houston, Aayliah, Beyoncé, Ciara, SWV and Mary J. Blige.
In an interview with the AP in 2016, Elliott noted that the public is largely unaware of her writing and producing work.
“A lot of people don’t know a lot of records that I’ve written or produced, so that’s a highlight for me as a woman,” she said. “I always said if a man would have done half the records that I’ve done we would know about it. But we don’t know all the records I’ve done for other artists.”
Songwriters may qualify for induction into the Hall of Fame 20 years after their first commercial release of a song. The organization says its mission is to “honor those whose work represents a spectrum of the most beloved songs from the world’s popular music songbook.”
Other 2019 Hall of Fame nominees include Mariah Carey, Vince Gill, Dallas Austin, Chrissie Hynde and Jimmy Cliff.
The Hall’s 50th annual induction awards gala is slated to take place on June 13.
In 2017, Jay-Z became the first rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jermaine Dupri received the honor in 2018.