NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California used their Deep Space Network to transmit Missy Elliott‘s ‘The Rain’ 158,000,000 miles from Earth to Venus at the speed of light, taking just 14 minutes to land.
About her very first solo single going into orbit, the Grammy award winning rapper took to her X account with:
“YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network.” “My song ‘The Rain’ has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty, and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning.”
In a formal statement, Digital and Technology Division Director at NASA’s Office of Communications, Brittany Brown told Pitchfork: “Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries. Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”
The latest in a series of firsts for the hip-hop icon (born Melissa Arnette Elliott,) Missy become the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, something she always felt “seemed so far out of reach.” And ahead of last year’s ceremony, she appeared on ‘Good Morning America’ and said: “Words cannot describe.” “It just hasn’t clicked.”
Now 53-years-old, the superstar rapper/writer admitted she owes everything to the women who came before her, including Queen Latifah, 54, admitting “She’s somebody that, like I said, ‘come before me, open that door, left it open.’ “And I owe so many flowers, bouquets. It’s not enough bouquets for those women that came before me. And she’s one of those women.”
Comparing rock and roll to hip-hop in that it incorporates many other genres, Elliott added “Rock and Roll to me is a gumbo of different styles of music.” “I think we get this thing where, rock and roll, you gotta have a guitar. It’s like saying hip-hop is just rap when we have incorporated jazz, we have incorporated blues.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Atlantic Records