Queen Latifah Is First Woman Rapper Honored By Kennedy Center
Queen Latifah Becomes First Woman Rapper To Be Honored By Kennedy Center
Source: ABC / abc
Queen Latifah is making history again with a new milestone that has been decades in the making. The legendary artist has been announced as one of the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors recipients, making her the first ever rapper who is a woman to receive the prestigious recognition.
This achievement arrives just as hip-hop is celebrating its 50th anniversary, which makes the honor not only a career milestone for Latifah, but also a long overdue institutional acknowledgment of the genre she helped pioneer.
“This year we pay special tribute to the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, a uniquely American culture whose constant evolution is one of enduring relevance and impact..what a privilege it is to bestow an Honors to the First Lady of Hip-Hop who has inspired us along the way,” said Kennedy Center president, Deborah F. Rutter in a statement.
The Queen has been a pillar in hip-hop/rap music since the late 1980s and her socially conscious lyrics combined with her commanding presence helped redefine what it looked like for a woman to exist in rap music. She broke into a male-dominated space and expanded what that space could hold while she pushed the possibilities of the genre forward as whole. Over the years, she built an empire across music, film, television, and business, all while becoming an award-winning actress, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist along the way. This is important to note because the Kennedy Center selects honorees for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts.
Her inclusion in the 2023 class shows that there is a growing institutional recognition of hip-hop as a foundational American art form. That context matters, especially for women. Women artists have been some of the most important voices in hip-hop through the years, while simultaneously remaining some of most historically overlooked. Latifah’s honor is a step in the right direction as far as commemorating her own groundbreaking career and the trail she cleared for the artists that came after her. She joins fellow 2023 honorees Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Barry Gibb, and Dionne Warwick. The ceremony will take place on December 3rd in Washington, D.C.
Check Out Queen Latifah’s response to the honor below.
https://twitter.com/IAMQUEENLATIFAH/status/1672314007716515840?cxt=HHwWgMDS7dmuoLUuAAAA