Scott-Young talks about Elliott’s return to music world

Nearly three decades after Missy Elliott burst into the spotlight with her debut album “Supa Dupa Fly,” the hip-hop icon is finally setting out on her first-ever headlining tour this summer. We’ll pause while that sinks in, because, frankly, it’s such an unexpected thing to hear that at first it feels like it can’t possibly be true.

“I’ve had people argue with me: ‘No, no, no, you’re wrong,’” says 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 continues. “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 over the years. But the only multi-city tour Elliott’s ever done was two decades ago when 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 such longtime friends and collaborators as Busta Rhymes, Timbaland and Ciara. The tour kicked off July 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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.

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 conceptualise. 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 conceptualise it and I will figure out how to make it happen.” And that’s where this crazy journey we’ve been on began.

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.”

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 conceptualised. 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.

Tribune News Service