Nearly three decades after Missy Elliott burst into the spotlight with her debut album “Supa Dupa Fly,” the hip-hop icon from Portsmouth is finally setting out on her first headlining tour this summer.
We’ll pause while that sinks in, because, frankly, it’s such an unexpected thing to hear that it feels like it can’t possibly be true.
“I’ve had people argue with me: ‘No, no, no, you’re wrong,’” said Mona Scott-Young, Elliott’s manager since 1996, just before that first album arrived. “And I’m like, ‘No, I think I would know. I was there.’
“It’s pretty unimaginable,” Scott-Young continued. “Because she’s had so many milestone accomplishments, right? Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, every imaginable songwriter’s award. And you think of touring as just a natural extension of an artist that has had such an illustrious career.
“But yeah, historically she just has never felt that the time was right. Until now.”
Elliott has periodically popped up at festivals and as a guest artist. But the only multi-city tour she’s ever done was two decades ago, in 2004, when she opened for Alicia Keys and Beyoncé on the Verizon Ladies First Tour.
Accompanying Elliott on the “Out of This World: Missy Elliott Experience” tour are longtime friends and collaborators Busta Rhymes, Timbaland and Ciara. The tour kicked off July 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and includes stops Aug. 2 at the Hampton Coliseum and Aug. 8 in Washington.
In an interview edited for clarity and length, Scott-Young talked about Elliott’s decision to finally headline her own tour now, her reasons for not doing so earlier, and how she has many albums’ worth of new music recorded yet has not released a new studio album since 2005.
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So how did this happen? How did you learn she was ready to tour?
Well, we get offers constantly, which she goes, “Mmm, no, mmm, no.” And a big part of it is because she has such an incredible imagination in terms of what she wants to see happen. I often say it’s like a spectacle. She doesn’t just step onto a stage. It’s got to be all the bells and whistles because she comes from thinking that people pay good money, and they should get entertained.
For years, she had thought about Vegas. It would be an opportunity for her to plant herself in a space and build out whatever her mind can conceptualize. We would do something where she was static. And so we had taken a quick trip and taken a look at some of the shows that were out there.
And then one day she just called and said, “We should go on tour.” I was like, “Oh, wait, we weren’t just going to be in Vegas? What happened to that?” But our partnership has always been, “You conceptualize it and I will figure out how to make it happen.” And that’s where this crazy journey we’ve been on began.
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In the past, how has she decided when she wanted to play a festival or a stand-alone show?
It’s been very random. It could be because of a song that she saw kind of regaining popularity. We had the “Cool Off” (dance) challenge and people really responded well to that. Or she’ll see dance crazes and she’s like, “Oh, I’d love to have my dancers out there on stage.” And I’m like, ‘”Wait, we’re gonna do this show mainly because you wanted to give your dancers an opportunity?” [She laughs.]
Like we did the FYF festival (in Los Angeles in 2017) and that was kind of an opportunity for her to have 25-plus dancers on stage with her. She was like, “That feels like it could be a lot of fun.”
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So for this headlining tour, what had to take place to put it together?
Oh, good Lord, that is a loaded question. We probably have no less than 30 individual group text chains going on every single element. Because again, it’s not just getting on stage with a mic and some dancers, it’s the content that has to be conceptualized. The fans experience this show. It is not going to be something you watch. This is not a passive show, this is a fully immersed experience.
You’re going to go through a range of emotions. And the content, the wardrobe, the choreography, the music, the transitions, everything plays into that to paint this picture that lives in her head.
And the scariest thing to me is this picture is ever-evolving, it’s ever-changing. I’ll get middle of the night texts (from Elliott): “I have an idea.” That’s the scariest words that Missy Elliott can say to me. Because I never know where this idea is going to take me and what it’s going to entail in terms of execution.
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One of the things fans will be excited about is that Missy is bringing Busta Rhymes and Ciara and Timbaland.
It’s family. That’s what we say all the time, it’s a family affair. When she decided to do this there were so many artists that you could think of that would be great to go with Missy, right? But it was important for her that she delivered on the fans’ expectations. People have wanted to see her and Busta do anything together because they are such kindred spirits.
Ciara has been Missy’s protege and they’ve done some incredible music together. And Timbaland is everyone’s longtime collaborator. He’s going to be taking us in and out of the sets, doing his own set. It’s going to be a seamless experience.
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After she played the Friends & Lovers festival in Las Vegas last year she did the one show at Yaamava’. Was that a test for a tour or just a tag-on to the festival?
It’s funny, it was just the tag-on to the festival. To be perfectly honest, everything that she put on at the festival was not cheap. So it was like, “OK, Missy, let’s see, we’re going to need another show to help underwrite all of this stuff.” So it was really in support of the festival show.
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She was also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year — the first solo female hip-hop artist to go in. Did that play a role in the tour this year?
It kind of pulled her out. I say a lot she’s like a hermit. She goes into that Bat Cave, she’s making music, you know. You very rarely see her out and about, just a few select appearances. But with that Rock Hall of Fame there was a lot of press and she was out there a lot. And people just kept expressing appreciation and love, and she responds to wanting to kind of deliver on her gift.
So when people kept saying to her again and again, “Oh my God, it would be so great to see you, I’ve been dying to see you,” it made her feel like, “Oh, you know, I probably should do something to give back to the fans.” All the conversations were around Vegas. I think the tour just came about spontaneously because she realized this would give her the opportunity to get out there and meet them where they are.
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She told Variety recently that she had six albums’ worth of music recorded. What’s your sense of that as her manager?
The difference with Missy is she does nothing until she feels it’s absolutely the right time. One of her favorite phrases is “My spirit says,” because she really is not only intuitive, but very spiritual. And she’s always looking for those signs and looking to feel 100% reconciled with whatever decision she makes.
And if there is anything that just doesn’t have her feeling that the time is absolutely right she just won’t do it. It’s never motivated by the financial, which, for a manager, it’s kind of like, “Are you kidding me? Are we really saying no to this?” [She laughs.] And she’s like, “It just doesn’t feel right.”
She’s probably got more than six albums’ worth of material. I am sure that one day she will wake up and text me at 3 a.m. and say, “I have an idea,” and it’ll be let’s do the album. She just isn’t moved by anything other than her internal clock.
