Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah Become First Rappers to Receive National Medal of Arts

Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah are officially the first two rappers to be recipients of the prestigious National Medals of Arts honor.

Both attended the National Humanities awards ceremony at the White House on Monday (October 21), where among the 30 other recipients were filmmakers Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg, actress-director Eva Longoria, with a posthumous honor being given to late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Both the 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals were presented at the same ceremony Joe Biden.

Elliott posted a recap of the event on Tuesday (October 22), where on X, the 4-time Grammy winner wrote that she was "humbly grateful" and "crying tears of joy."

"Thinking of the days I wasn’t so strong but through FAITH & PRAYER I kept going..I’m SO THANKFUL@POTUS & CONGRATULATIONS to the other amazing ppl who was blessed with this honor," Elliott tweeted.

In a second post, the 53-year-old also congratulated Latifah with clips of them posing together. "And a BiG CONGRATS to my sis @IAMQUEENLATIFAH who deserve all the bouquets she also was honored today! Thank you for kicking down doors QUEEN for me & those after you#NationalMedalsofArts @FLOTUS The entire committee," Elliott continued.

The recognition comes nearly one year after Elliott was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Latifah is also eligible to be inducted in the Rock Hall, her 1989 debut, All Hail the Queen, turned 25 in 2014, but she performed as part of a live A Tribe Called Quest tribute during the organization's 2024 induction ceremony on October 19.