Today in news to get your freak on about: Missy Elliott has been honored with a street named after her in her hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia today (August 11th).
The newly-crowned Missy Elliott Boulevard is a portion of McLean Street, which serves the city’s Victory Crossing Shopping Center, Tidewater Community College, and the future Portsmouth Rivers Casino. It’s appropriately located in Portsmouth’s Entertainment District.
“I am forever GRATEFUL🙏🏾 P-TOWN🙌🏾 VA #757 LOVE💜,” Elliott tweeted in response to the tribute. The Grammy-award winning musician grew up in Portsmouth’s Hodges Ferry area, and she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School (now Manor High School) in 1990. Some of her family still resides in and around the city.
This is just the latest in a few honors bestowed upon Elliott in recent years. Back in 2019, she received an honorary degree from Berklee College of Music, and last year, she got a long overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Elliott’s latest project was 2019’s Iconology. In the past few years, she’s has appeared on collaborations with Dua Lipa, Teyana Taylor, Lizzo, and more, and she also directed the video for City Girls’ “Twerkulator.” You can also revisit her production work from Aaliyah’s catalog, as most of the late singer’s albums landed on streaming services for the first time last year.