The Recording Academy’s annual Black Music Collective event, hosted to honor Black creators in the music industry during Grammys week, will return this year to present five-time Grammy Award winner Lil Wayne, four-time Grammy Award winner Missy Elliot, and seven-time Grammy Award winner Dr. Dre with the Global Impact Award.
The award, which will be presented to the honorees on Feb. 2, three days before the 2023 Grammy Awards, recognized personal and professional achievements in the music industry. Sylvia Rhone, a music executive who oversees a roster of artists as CEO and Chairwoman of Epic Records, will also receive the honor.
“I am so thrilled to honor and celebrate these four giants in the music industry,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. shared in a statement. “Last year’s inaugural event was such a highlight during GRAMMY Week, and now with Dre, Missy, Wayne, and Sylvia there to pay tribute to this year, it’s definitely going to be another night to remember. I continue to be proud of the work of our Black Music Collective as it’s a vital part of what we do here at the Academy.”
The Black Music Collective event will feature music direction from Adam Blackstone, who is nominated this year for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the Jazmine Sullivan-assisted “Round Midnight.” He was also awarded a Primetime Emmy for his role as musical director on the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, which featured performances from Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and 50 Cent.
Blackstone helmed the inaugural Black Music Collective event in 2022, during which John Legend received the first-ever Global Impact Award. “This event is a reflection of our continued work as we strive to celebrate the greatest and brightest in Black music who transcend beyond race and genre,” Riggs Morales, Chair of the Black Music Collective, shared in a statement last year.
The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective was established in September 2020 in hopes of celebrating Black music and “those who share our mission to foster and accelerate Black representation, equity, and inclusion throughout the music industry,” according to Morales.
Lil Wayne is the only recipient this year also to be nominated for a Grammy Award, appearing on the Song of the Year-nominated DJ Khaled single “God Did” alongside Legend, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and Fridayy. Elliot was last nominated in 2014 in the Best R&B Song category for “Without Me” with Fantasia and Kelly Rowland. In 2017, Dr. Dre’s Straight Outta Compton was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.
