Hip-hop heavyweight Missy Elliott has announced her first-ever headline tour, which includes a Motor City stop.
“OUT OF THIS WORLD — The Missy Elliott Experience” also includes Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and longtime collaborator Timbaland, and is set for Thursday, Aug. 15 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
“This is an incredible time in my life as I am experiencing so many milestone ‘firsts,’” Elliot said in a statement. “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 with me, Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland! We can’t wait to share this experience with the fans!”
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 12 at 313presents.com, livenation.com, and ticketmaster.com.
Information on presale options is available at missy-elliott.com. A number of VIP options are also offered from vipnation.com, including premium seats, onstage photo options, lounge access, exclusive merch, and more.
Elliott has also collaborated with director Dave Meyers (“Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” “Pass That Dutch”) for a flashy cyberpunk tour announcement video that looks like something out of The Matrix.
In the ’90s, then-obscure producers Elliott and Timbaland found critical and commercial success producing One in a Million, the sophomore album by Detroit’s Aaliyah. The singer started working with them when she was 16 — shortly after parting ways with producer R. Kelly, who is accused of sexually abusing her.
The duo’s avant-garde approach helped take Aaliyah’s music to the next level.
“At first, Tim and Missy were skeptical if I would like their work, but I thought it was tight, just ridiculous,” Aaliyah had said of working with Elliott and Timbaland. “Their sound was different and unique, and that’s what appealed to me … Before we got together, I talked to them on the phone and told them what I wanted. I said, ‘You guys know I have a street image, but there is a sexiness to it, and I want my songs to complement that’; I told them that before I even met them. Once I said that, I didn’t have to say anything else. Everything they brought me was the bomb.”
