Missy Elliott is discussing her upcoming tour as she prepares to headline her first show on the road!
While it’s hard to believe that the iconic multihyphenate, responsible for chart-toppers like “Hot Boyz,” “Get Ur Freak On,” “Gossip Folks,” and “Lose Control,” along with epic collaborations with Ciara, Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, Angie Martinez, Left Eye, Da Brat, Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Pink (among others), has never embarked on her own tour, Missy spills the beans on what sparked this sudden move.
“Well, I’ve had opportunities before and I was so engulfed in producing and writing for other artists,” she began, speaking to Variety. “And I just woke up one day like, I want to go out on the road. And for my team of course, they thought I was playing, like yeah, alright. My manager, she called me the next day like, are you sure? Were you playing about what you said? No, I want to go out, I’m for real this time.”
Discussing how her headlining tour will stand apart from past tours, like joining Queen Bey’s promotional tour surrounding her debut album Dangerously In Love or Alicia Keys and Tamia’s 2004 Verizon Ladies First Tour, she said, “I feel like a kid in a candy store, for real. So you know, I’m going to try to put everything on the stage.”
Of course, she won’t be going at it alone! Missy Elliott is bringing longtime collaborators and friends Bus-a-Bus and CiCi along for the ride.
“But also I have Busta and Ciara and I’m excited about that because I made sure that I didn’t just pick people who were hot out there. They’re hot anyway because they have so many timeless hits. But I wanted that energy to match the energy that I have so I believe that all of us have the same energy. It’s you and me dancing the whole time,” she added.
In April, the Grammy-winning rapper dropped a bombshell: the Out of This World Tour is officially happening. Joining her for the cosmic journey are none other than her longtime collaborators Busta Rhymes, Timbaland, and Ciara.
Beginning July 4 in Vancouver, the 24 city tour will kickoff in Vancouver before making stops in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York and Toronto before closing things out on August 22 in Rosemont, Illinois.
“This is an incredible time in my life as I am experiencing so many milestone ‘firsts,’” Elliott said in a press release. “Being the FIRST female Hip Hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and now going out on my FIRST headline tour.
“Fans have been asking me to tour forever but I wanted to wait until I felt the time was right because I knew if I was ever going to do it, I had to do it big, and I had to do it with family! So get ready to be taken OUT OF THIS WORLD.”