Honorable Mention - Missy ""Misdemeanor"" Elliott

In the male-dominated universe of '00s hip-hop, Missy ""Misdemeanor"" Elliott broke through. She did so while rejecting hip-hop's submissive role for women while neither erasing her gender identity nor draining her persona of sexuality in the least. And just as significantly, she did it all with a body that was far from the fallacious female ""ideal"" that continues to be pumped into Americans' consciousnesses by male rappers' videos. Elliott emerged from the '90s with a few mostly down-tempo hits like ""The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"" and ""She's a Bitch"" under her belt, but beginning with So Addictive, the Missy Elliott of the '00s was more club anthem-oriented. The beats were provided by pre-superstar Timbaland, a childhood friend, and Elliott's rapping was inspired and, as in ""Work It,"" occasionally done in an apparently made-up language. Plus she was capable of singing without embarrassing herself, which can't be said of Jay-Z, Eminem or most other huge '00s rappers who tried it. Her videos also did their part to keep things strangely interesting in MTV's TRL era, like in ""Pass That Dutch"" when she appears as a scarecrow and performs under a flying saucer, or the phenomenal ""Get Ur Freak On"" when her head jumps off her body via a serpentine 20-foot neck. In that song, Elliott raps, ""Ain't no stopping me / Copywritten so don't copy me."" In the '00s, no one could.