MISSY ELLIOTT

The year was 1996. Female rappers dominated the main stage and Missy Misdemeanor Elliott debuted a sound that undeniably placed her in a league of her own. 

The Portsmouth Virginia native introduced a futuristic skat meets beatboxing sound.

Her vibrant creativity was unlike anything else…INFECTIOUS. 

The world witnessed her Elektra Records solo debut, Supa Dupa Fly and groundbreaking videos to match.

Missy’s visuals were technicolor, experimental…captivating. Much more than fly, they were cinematic. In this way, Missy became the MJ of rap and brought “different” back at a time when everything felt the same.

Hip-hop’s Innovator, Missy took every stereotype of a female artist in the 90s, put that thing down, flipped it and reversed it. 

Rapper…..Singer…..Songwriter….Producer. This legend’s been “Workin’’” it for at least 20 of hip-hop’s 50 years…

And Missy Never misses.

The first female and third rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Missy Elliot has won 4 Grammys, earned 22 nominations, sold more than 30 million albums, and created 15 platinum records.

THE HITS! 

The ones you know… And the ones you might not…

Whether through style, fashion, flow, candor, beats or overall boss moves Missy has more than likely created with, influenced, or paved the way for your favorite icon. 

Whitney, Mariah, Madonna, Janet, Timbaland, Beyonce, Pharrell, Ciara, Sean Combs, Demi Lovato, Lil’ Kim, Katy Perry and more.

No genre or box can hold her.

For the hip hop community and the world over, her legend status is simply not up for debate.  

MARIAH CAREY

Her name is synonymous with a flawless high note…

Her voice is a world-renowned five-octave instrument…

Her pen is responsible for countless chart-topping classics…

And frankly, she owns the holiday season.

Mariah Carey. 

Singing since a preteen in Huntington, NY, Carey is now an icon so unmatched, she’s been given the title of Songbird Supreme by Guinness World Records. And what a fitting one. 

The starpower it takes to be a household name since 20…

Sell more than 200 million albums worldwide… 

Hold the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 No.1 singles by a solo artist… 

Deliver 15 studio albums over the span of an epic 34-year career… 

Branch out to grace the big screen and author a NYT bestselling memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey…

…Supreme, indeed. 

Carey’s five Grammys are just the tip of the illustrious iceberg. The chanteuse has received more than a hundred awards and honors for her discography, including being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is deserving of every accolade. Alone or in unforgettable collaborations with everyone from amazing artists such as Snoop, Busta Rhymes and BabyFace to our beloved late greats such as ODB, Luther Vandross, and Whitney Houston…her music has been the soundtrack for so many of our memories. 

Ahem…and let’s not forget about Christmas. Carey’s holly hit “All I Want for Christmas” has held an unrelenting wintry reign for years. 

With a slow simmer to greatness, it’s sold more than 30 million copies globally…

topped the Billboard Hot 100 Chart 25 years after its release, setting a new marker for longevity…  

is the highest RIAA certified single by a female artist at 14 times platinum…

broke the record for the most streamed song in a single day on Spotify four times over…

and in 2023, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. 

…Insane. 

But what makes Mariah Carey even more legendary than her resounding success is how loudly her actions speak. The Fresh Air Fund, a youth development not-for-profit, named its summer camp after her in honor of her tireless support. Camp Mariah, the location where a younger Carey once directed her video for “Always Be My Baby,” now provides career guidance to thousands of underserved inner-city kids every year. She also consistently dedicates her resources to foundations like Make-A-Wish and Save The Music, contributes to cancer research and disaster relief, and is a proud longstanding ally to the LGBTQ+ community. 

Her art, her philanthropy, her life… is absolutely a vision of love.

DR. DRE

Hip-Hop Trailblazer

Certified Hitmaker

Elite Producer

Philanthropist

Business Mogul….Mastermind

Andre “Dr. Dre” Young is the epitome of innovation. 

The Doctor went seven times platinum pioneering gangsta rap with NWA, ushered in a whole new music genre in G-Funk with Snoop, co-founded Death Row then brought his own heat with Aftermath. 

He gave us instant classics as a solo artist from his legendary multi-platinum album, The Chronic, and along with single-handedly helping to launch the careers of some of hip-hop’s biggest stars – Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak, Dre flexes his musical prowess across the industry – writing, arranging, composing and rhyming with every heavyweight in the game: Pac, Jay-Z, Scarface, Nas, Redman, Chuck D, Erykah Badu, Ice Cube, Xzibit, Toni Braxton, Nate Dogg, Mary J Blige, DJ Quick, Eve, Kelis, Mobb Deep, Busta Rhymes… and the list goes on. 

Beyond the music that earned the Compton-native seven Grammys, and 24 nominations, Dre created a wildly popular global brand in Beats By Dre. And in 2013, he partnered with long-time friend Jimmy Iovine to open up the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy to establish and nurture critical thinking in art, tech and business innovation. Last year, he and Iovine expanded their efforts, opening the Iovine and Young Center Integrated Design, Technology and Entrepreneurship Magnet high school. He’s also donated a $10 million performing arts center to Compton High School’s new campus. 

Dr. Dre’s investment in shaping brilliant minds is ongoing. His influence is unparalleled…Not to mention historic: in 2022, he brought Compton to the masses, orchestrating the first ever SuperBowl half-time performance to pay homage to hip-hop in its 50 years—which also earned him an Emmy.

With individual album sales of more than 40 million and having contributed to more than 200 million worldwide, E.P.I.C  is the only word to describe D.R.E. 

And he still got love for the streets.

QUEEN LATIFAH

Lyricist, Leader,

Artist, Actress, 

Trailblazer, Titan of Hip-Hop

Inspiring Cover Girl

Fearless Advocate

Activist, Ally

Humanitarian… 

An Icon Living Queen Latifah

(VOICE OVER BEGINS)

Dana Owens has never been afraid to march to her own beat. 

From using her melodic flow to challenge hip-hop’s status quo…

to being instrumental in diversifying the entertainment industry… 

For decades, Owens has utilized her voice, not just to make records, but to break molds.

Traversing genres, her chromatic career has been a seamless progression from song to screen to stage to sitting on boards for philanthropic foundations. And in every space, whether she’s rapping, singing, acting, producing, composing or advocating, our Majesty’s prowess as an artist and visionary always comes across loud and clear.  

Her influence has a sonic reach that surpasses the countless artists she inspires, the households within which her distinct voice resonates, and the global fanbase that faithfully follows her career…

Owens has left an undeniable and eternal mark on culture, period.  

It is why she is a Grammy, Emmy and Oscar-award winner, and the first female hip-hop Kennedy Center honoree… our Queen has made contributions in art, equity and excellence that will reverberate throughout the halls of history. 

May generations to come continue to sing her praises. 

LENNY KRAVITZ

Lenny Kravitz electrifies every room he enters. Perhaps an attribute he picked up as a child being around giants like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald so often. Or lessons from the legends that inspired his musical awakening. 

What’s for certain is there’s no denying his energy transmutes everything it touches. Especially rock & roll. For more than 30 years, Kravitz has written, produced and performed tracks that have redefined the genre. As a master multi-instrumentalist, he has stretched sonic bounds and infused disco, electric funk, sultry balladry, country twang and so much soul into his sound. And his sexy baritone has earned him four consecutive Grammys. From reinvigorating classics to the countless hits he’s penned for himself and others this rock maestro doesn’t make songs; he creates chart-topping world anthems. And dares us not to sing along at the top of our lungs.

Between delivering 12 albums of high vibrations, Kravitz also found time to channel his soulful elegance into a creative studio that focuses on design from brand to interior to industrial. Even more awe-inspiring? His decision to follow in his mother Roxy Roker’s footsteps, and begin acting. He’s been a film composer for decades, most recently receiving a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song on last year’s Rustin. But when this limitless talent got in front of the camera for his role in 2009’s Precious, everyone paid attention. And now with four more films including The Butler and two Hunger Games, under his fashionably buckled belt, there is no denying him as an onscreen talent. 

Truly a consistent light, Kravitz works diligently to spread good internationally, through his Let Love Rule Foundation. Let Love Rule Foundation has a longstanding partnership with Glo Good Foundation to bring free dental care clinics and education to the underserved in the Bahamas. In addition, they’ve dedicated support to Bahamians suffering from food insecurity amidst the pandemic, and carried out rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Kravitz’s steadfast activism has also included partnerships with UN Human Rights, UNICEF, MusiCares, and Global Citizen. 

A force. A visionary. A walking, breathing Love Revolution.

MISTY COPELAND

When Misty Copeland flutters across a stage, it appears EFFORTLESS. 

Her POSTURE communicates that her excellence Must be a gift. 

Her GRACE would have one think that her historic rise to becoming the first Black principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre must have been one of ease. 

Her gravity defying jeté makes it hard to believe that she began ballet at 13 years of age. Or that she has carried the weight of racism her entire two decade-long career.

The truth, however, is that Misty Copeland has relevéed in spite of. 

Since her childhood, residing in a motel in San Pedro, California with her single working mom and 5 siblings, the Kansas City, Missouri native has known struggle. 

But more importantly, she has known perseverance. 

After her first ballet lesson on a basketball court, Copeland’s natural talent at dance would have only taken her so far. It was and is her Tenacity, Discipline, her Dedication, and Consistency and the never ending rigor of her craft that prompted her metamorphosis—Not just into a masterful ballerina, but into an unbelievable human being. 

Misty Copeland is quite literally en pointe. 

Dancing as the only Black ballerina at ABT for a decade, Copeland understood that while Black women are seen in modern dance, they are very rare in the classically trained ballet space. She has, therefore, worked to not only spread her wings, performing some of the most iconic classical ballet roles such as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet; and Kitri in Don Quixote, but she has made it her mission to take other aspiring ballerinas under those wings.  

Unafraid of negatively impacting her career, Copeland has been outspoken and intentional about making ballet diverse and inclusive, while also bringing it to underrepresented and underserved communities. 

She has launched The Misty Copeland Foundation, with its first signature program BE BOLD aimed at bringing greater inclusion to dance. 

She began a production company called Life In Motion Productions to focus on storytelling representative of artists, and released her first independently produced project, Flower, a silent arts activism film using dance to help raise awareness about intergenerational equity. 

And as an avid philanthropist, she is an ambassador for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, as well as MindLeaps, an arts education program based in Rwanda that helps young people get off the streets and into academic settings that enhance their lives. 

Copeland continues to fly to new heights. She made her Broadway debut in On The Town and her major motion picture debut in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, before becoming the New York Times bestselling author of Life In Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and a picture book titled Bunheads. As well as the author of the award-winning children’s picture book, Firebird, and her newest offering, The Wind At My Back, in tribute to her late mentor and friend, pioneering ballerina Raven Wilkinson.

In recognition of her diligent work and masterful craft, Copeland has been featured in several publications, including Time Magazine for the Time 100, ESSENCE, Self, ELLE South Africa, Oxygen and Women’s Health, and was the recipient of the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest honor. 

Whether through sweat equity–like performing with six bone fractures her opening night at the Met–philanthropy or advocacy, Copeland continues to give girls around the world the powerful gift of representation.

With pride Copeland has stated “If you don’t see me as a Black woman, then you don’t see me”. Well, Misty Copeland, we see and honor you and all that you do.

ANGELA BASSETT

One might be inclined to curtsy upon meeting Angela Bassett. So much more than an actress, Angela Bassett is indeed a Queen.

Born in Harlem, NY, Bassett’s road to excellence truly began in Petersburg, Florida, where she and her sister bore witness to the work ethic of their single mother, Betty Bassett. Hardworking and dedicated, her mother encouraged the same in her daughters in education and life. She made good on her mother’s wishes, not only earning her Bachelor’s Degree in African American Studies from Yale University, but matriculating into the Yale School of Drama where she received an MFA. And for nearly 50 years, the living legend has poured her entire self into more than 100 roles of every kind.

Whether on pivotal Black television like “A Man Called Hawk” and “The Cosby Show”, or on Broadway, in her Tony Award-nominated performance in Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop”… Whether literally changing the face of film in the 90s, or fittingly depicting some of our strongest, most esteemed queens in biopics…  Bassett has masterfully transformed herself time and time again. 

Truly every woman, Bassett became Coretta Scott King. She became Rosa Parks. Voletta Wallace. Betty Shabazz. Katherine Jackson. And absolutely embodied Tina Turner. She pioneered the on-screen women’s movement in the groundbreaking Black women-centered classic “Waiting to Exhale as Bernadine. She is Stella. And Akeelah’s mama, and will forever be Ramonda, Queen of Wakanda. She is currently playing a badass sergeant in the much acclaimed TV series that she also executive produced, 9-1-1.  

In every genre as an actor, director, and producer Bassett has brought her uncanny vulnerability and authenticity to it all.

The world can only continue to bow in reverence. 

She is six-time Emmy- and twice Oscar-nominated. And the recipient of six NAACP Image awards, a Screen Actors Guild award and two Golden Globes. Bassett was most recently awarded an Honorary Oscar, and in true Queen fashion, used her long-awaited and much deserved moment to uplift the collective, speaking directly to the perseverance of other Black actresses. Regality at its finest. 

A treasure, far beyond her gift of acting, Bassett and her husband Courtney Vance have co-founded Bassett Vance Productions with the mission to create timely media that promotes dialogue. And as a steady philanthropist, dedicates her time and resources to countless charities including UNICEF, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. In honor of her beloved mother, Bassett has also made it her mission to arm Black women with information needed to navigate the American healthcare system. 

Her timeless career, supportive family, and legions of fans are all testament to the expanse of her heart and the integrity of her life’s work. Our Majesty has been quoted as stating, “by giving, you receive”. Angela Bassett, you have given us more than you will ever know.