Missy Elliott snub is unforgivable
VMAs can’t even live up to their origins anymore
Another MTV Video Music Awards, another Missy Elliott snub.
The VMAs have been hit with complaints in recent years that, like its parent network, they have failed to stay relevant as the music industry has changed around them. One would think that, with reviews of last year’s show ranging from “empty” and “extremely boring” to “beyond saving,” MTV would be responsive to one of the few elements of the VMAs that fans are actually still passionate about: that Elliott should win the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, the show’s version of a lifetime achievement prize for music videos.
The campaign for Missy has been simmering online for years.
Fans knew bad news was in store, however, when earlier in July, Elliott quashed the rumors that she would be the Video Vanguard recipient at the 2018 VMAs on Aug. 20, tweeting, “I’m sorry to say I don’t think I am even on the list.”
When news broke last week that Jennifer Lopez would be receiving the award instead, the backlash was immediate, with J.Lo smartly telling MTV that she thinks Elliott should be the Vanguard winner next year, possibly her attempt to escape the wrath of angry Elliott fans.
Elliott responded to the internet drama by thanking her fans for their support of her videos and tweeting at J.Lo that she was “humbly grateful” for her shout-out – an exceedingly gracious response from an artist who deserves so much more than a snub from a TV network that’s a shadow of its former self.
Missy fans have a right to be angry, considering the VMAs’ baffling blind spot toward an artist widely seen as a music video visionary. Fans remember Elliott’s videos best for enduring im- ages, like her garbage-bag suit in “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and young Alyson Stoner’s dance moves in “Work It,” but her videography contains so much more – futuristic world-building imagery, unparalleled choreography and, beyond all, a complete redefining of female artists’ on-screen power.
To be clear, Lopez is not the person to be blamed for MTV’s baffling blindness when it comes to the historical record of the art form the VMAs claim to celebrate.
Lopez is a pop icon and a true triple threat, and while her music videos aren’t necessarily the most enduring part of her legacy, there are worse Video Vanguard choices MTV could’ve made. And Lopez’ award is an attempt for the VMAs to right the show’s dismal historical record when it comes to the award’s demographics – since the VMAs began awarding the lifetime achievement prize in 1984, 23 of the award’s 34 recipients have been white men or white male bands.
Yet the VMAs don’t get a pass for simply awarding the Video Vanguard to a woman of color.
Considering that Elliott’s name isn’t included nearly enough in conversations about hip-hop’s most talented artists in the genre’s history, it’s even more of a sting to see her denied the Video Vanguard award, honoring an art form she so clearly has dominated in her career.
And with the awards show’s influence in steady decline since the ’90s, the fact that MTV can’t even get the “video” in its “Video Music Awards” title right is another strike in favor of rethinking, or ending entirely, the VMAs as they exist now.
Awarding Elliott the Video Vanguard Award – an idea that Elliott fans have been clamoring about for years – would’ve been an easy win for a show that has become more a punchline than a must-see TV event.
Denying her the award, whether through ignorance or willful erasure of her artistic contributions, is just the kind of incompetence we’ve come to expect from the show.