Lil Wayne, Lil Kim, & Ciara Celebrate Missy Elliott As She Receives Global Impact Award At Grammy Black Music Collective Event

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held tonight, Sunday (February 5, 2023), at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. It will recognize the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022. The nominations were announced on November 15, 2022.

South African comedian Trevor Noah, who hosted the 63rd and 64th ceremonies, will return as the host for the third time.

Beyoncé received the most nominations with nine, followed by Kendrick Lamar with eight, and Adele and Brandi Carlile with seven each. With a career total of 88 nominations, Beyoncé tied with her husband Jay-Z as the most nominated artists in Grammy history.

This year’s Grammy Black Music Collective ceremony was once again the highlight of Grammy Week — with performances from Ciara, Tweet, Busta Rhymes, Chole Bailey, Tyga, 2 Chains, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt as well as Ty Dolla $ign and others.

Held at the Hollywood Palladium, it was a sort of mini-MusiCares event, in that four individuals were honored with the inaugural Global Impact Award — Dr. Dre, Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne and Epic Records Chairman-CEO Sylvia Rhone — and did not themselves perform, but instead each got a brief tribute set performed by other artists.

A three-part tribute to Missy Elliott saw Chloe Bailey performing “One in a Million” (Elliott and Timbaland’s breakthrough hit for Aaliyah), followed by Elliott longtime protégé Tweet showing off her powerful pipes on “Oops (Oh My)” and concluding with Ciara delivering the Elliott-cowritten “1,2 Step.”

Elliott said, “This will never get old to me, I’ve won a lot of awards and I feel the same way…” before choking up and pausing for several long moments, “Anybody who knows me know I’m always cryin’,” she laughed before singling out manager Mona Scott and Rhone, saying of the latter, “She never told me no, she never told me ‘You need to lose weight’” — another pause — “She never told me ‘you have to change your records’… and I appreciate you for that. I thank you because that is why I stand here.”

Lil Wayne, Lil Kim, Ciara, Misa Hylton, Busta Rhymes, Slick Rick, Chloe Bailey, Mona Scott Young, Mc Lyte, amongst others were all there to celebrate Missy.