Chlöe Bailey Salutes Missy Elliott for ‘Showing Me How to Be a Fearless Woman and a Badass Producer’

variety.com:

Jaden Thompson Chlöe Bailey is best known as a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, but she’s proven just as talented on the boards, earning the Powerhouse Producer Award at the inaugural Girls Make Beats gala on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

In her acceptance speech, Bailey acknowledged the female music producers who paved the way for her, including fellow honoree Missy Elliott. “Representation matters,” Bailey told the crowd assembled at the Avalon Hollywood, name-checking Elliott, Imogen Heap, Björk, Merrill Garbus and Grimes. “They showed me how to be a fearless woman and a badass producer all at the same time.” Bailey also acknowledged the importance of organizations like Girls Make Beats, a nonprofit founded in 2012 to empower young women to become music producers, audio engineers and DJs. “The honor is not one of a personal accomplishment.

It is an honor because I know young girls and women need to see it before they believe it,” Bailey said. “It is because of you that hundreds of girls will get needed scholarships that will unlock previously sealed fastened shut doors to their future.”(More specifically, the organization’s goal for the inaugural gala, held at the Avalon Hollywood, was to raise money scholarships benefitting 300 girls from underserved communities.) “Stereotypes create stigma, so it is up to us to change that narrative.

To the young women who hear this message, do not let anyone tell you that your art is lesser than,” Bailey added, referring to the lack of female representation in producing and engineering, and the prevalent — if sometimes unspoken — belief that those jobs are intended only for men.