Twenty years ago, Missy Elliott worked it with two other legendary divas — Beyoncé and Alicia Keys — on the Verizon Ladies First Tour.
(Just let that lineup sink in for a minute. I’ll wait …)
I was fortunate enough to be in their presence at the now-defunct Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, back in 2004 — and there was no mistaking that Misdemeanor brought all of her “Supa Dupa Fly”-ness to the stage as one of those co-headlining queens.
Little did any of us witnessing all of that Black girl magic know that it would take another 20 years before Elliott took her show on the road again in the US — this time on her first-ever headlining trek in the Out of This World Tour with her longtime collaborators Ciara, Busta Rhymes and Timbaland.
But man, was it ever worth the wait.
In what has been a relatively slow season on the concert scene — perhaps we got spoiled with both Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyonce’s “Renaissance” World Tour last year — Elliott cooked up the hottest show of the summer at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Monday night.
After launching her North American invasion on July 4 in Vancouver, Elliott had reached a career performance peak as she turned Jay-Z’s house into her own.
It was the ultimate victory lap after the four-time Grammy winner became the first female hip-hop artist inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last December.
Touring had never seemed to be Missy’s thing — perhaps because she was most comfortable in the studio, also writing and producing for everyone from Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey to Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé. There was also her battle with Graves’ disease after being diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder in 2008.
But at 53 — when most artists are inevitably slowing down — Elliott appeared to be Benjamin Button-ing it 27 years after releasing her groundbreaking debut album, 1997’s “Supa Dupa Fly.” In a nonstop 90-minute set that was masterfully mixed with the bustle-and-flow of a hip-hop DJ’s ear, it was as if she was all of a sudden Missy 2.0.
As much as the concert was a rousing reminder that Elliott was a beast of beats in the late ‘90s and early/mid-’00s—from “We Run This” and “Sock It 2 Me” to “Get Ur Freak On”—it was also a visual feast.
After a “Singin’ in the Rain” introduction, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” — which had a visionary video back in 1997 — featured umbrella-hatted dancers in lockstep with Elliott. “She’s a Bitch” — my personal highlight in one long highlight reel — saw her futuristic fashion going to space-tacular new heights with a ballooning, billowing train that blew away anything in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
By the time it was all over — after the unbridled blast of “Lose Control” — this one-of-one icon was a 10/10. No notes.
Oh, and as if there needed to be anything else, Elliott received stellar support from Ciara, whose body and choreography were still tight just eight months after giving birth to her fourth child (and third with her football star husband Russell Wilson); and old-school hype artist Busta Rhymes, who affectionately described Elliott as “my twin.”
And did we mention the surprise cameos by local rap royalty LL Cool J (in Busta’s set) and Lil’ Kim (in Missy’s) that made this a true New York event?
We may never get another headlining tour from Elliott. Says here that she’s one and done.
But if that’s the case, there is no doubt that she left it all — every last bit of her freak — on the stage.
