Rap music fans, you had better prepare to Get Ur Freak On this summer because Missy Elliott on Monday announced her first-ever headline tour — and she’s taking Busta Rhymes, Ciara and Timbaland along with her.
The 24-city tour will see Elliott, 52, and her collaborators travel to Canadian arenas, in Vancouver, B.C., on July 4, Montréal, Que., on Aug. 17, and Toronto, Ont., on Aug. 19.
Elliott announced the tour, called Out of This World — The Missy Elliott Experience, via an intergalactic-themed video posted to social media.
“There will be no tour like it,” Elliott hypes in the teaser video.
Prior to now, Elliott has never headlined her own tour, despite her prolific music career beginning in the 1990s.
“This is an incredible time in my life as I am experiencing so many milestone ‘firsts,'” Elliot said in a press release. “Being the FIRST female hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock and 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!”
She continued: “So get ready to be taken OUT OF THIS WORLD with me, Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland! We can’t wait to share this experience with the fans!”
Vancouver’s Rogers Arena will be the tour’s first stop, only to end the next month in Rosemont, Ill.
Elliott is one of the most notable women in rap music, with hit songs including Lose Control and Work It.
In 2019, she became the first female rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards. Later in 2021, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Elliott was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
Elliott and Busta Rhymes have been frequent collaborators throughout her career, including on her debut album Supa Dupa Fly.
Ciara has also collaborated with Elliott, namely on the ever-popular song 1, 2 Step released in 2004, and Lose Control, released the year after.
But make no mistake, this isn’t a nostalgia tour.
Rhymes told the Associated Press all of the artists involved “are in the best spaces in our lives, individually and collectively.”
“We’re no longer Daniel-san. We’re now all Mr. Miyagi senseis,” he said. “We’re all at our perfection levels of what we’ve been doing and building together as a collective family for 30 years.”
In his own regard, Busta Rhymes reached international fame much to do with his songs Touch It and I Know What You Want with Mariah Carey and The Flipmode Squad.
Ciara too is a well-known singer and songwriter, with several chart-topping songs including Oh and Goodies.
Presale for Out of This World — The Missy Elliott Experience begins Tuesday, and tickets will become available to the general public on Friday.
— with files from The Associated Press