In a four-star Toronto show, Missy Elliott shows why she is a visionary

As a millennial, I am bombarded with nostalgia tours. I am not complaining because I am at the age where I sincerely do think seeing Maroon 5 on a Thursday night and flawlessly singing all the words to “She Will Be Loved” with your best friend is peak fun.
Summer nostalgia tours are a cheat code, a tried-and-true formula that doesn’t necessarily have to add up to hook you.
Let’s be honest: sometimes, the pairings could make more sense. A hot summer night with Shaggy, TLC, En Vogue and Sean Kingston; that is an odd grouping, but sure. Pink and Sarah McLachlan, why not? But Missy Elliott hitting the road with Ciara, Busta Rhymes and Timbaland makes sense in a genuinely special way, elevating it past nostalgia bait.
Believe it or not, Missy Elliott has never headlined a tour, even with all her achievements, including the MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, a pair of Grammys, spots in the Rock & Roll and Songwriters halls of fame, the Billboard Women in Music Innovator Award, six BET awards and more. This summer was the first opportunity to see her live for many long-time fans packing the sold-out Scotiabank arena.
Calling Missy a trailblazer is an understatement. It would take the remainder of this review to detail her importance.
The bottom line is this: while most artists would kill to be considered creative, Missy Elliott is imaginative, a visionary as a producer, MC and music video curator. Since debuting in 1996, Missy Elliott has always presented her music as complete worlds, with reoccurring characters, zany visuals, hypnotic dancing, complementary production samples, and sex and body-positive lyrics. Her “Out of This World” tour was no different.
Like a rocket launch into Missy’s mind, with her closing set being the final destination, the entire show had a distinct erotic sci-fi ecstatic vibe. Neon lights surrounded the walls and floors of the stage, with the colours and stage design brightening and expanding with each performer.
The opening set with Timbaland was like walking into the space station. Giddy to take off at only 7 p.m., Scotiabank Arena was already about 75 per cent full. Backed by just a DJ, a mid-sized LED screen and a few lasers, Timbaland ran through a melody of songs, letting the enthusiastic crowd do most of the heavy lifting.
Forgivingly not a performer, he kept it simple and played hype man as he spun hit after hit while the majority-female crowd ate it up.
A long-time associate and producer for Missy Elliott, the pair’s roots go deep, co-producing and writing songs as a duo for Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, No Doubt, Lil’ Kim and more. The two have also featured separately on several songs for the second act of the night, Busta Rhymes.
Boarding the space shuttle 10 minutes after Timbaland wrapped, Busta Rhymes emerged from underneath the floor to a more comprehensive stage. Adding a larger LED screen and more lights, like Timbaland, Busta kept it simple.
His set was mostly crowd work; with DJ Scratchator and longtime hype man Spliff Star, he performed a lineup of songs curated to the “ladies in the building,” highlighted by “I Know What You Want” and “What’s It Gonna Be?!”
Busta did a solid hour set that never let up in energy, making him a tough act to follow for the next performer, Ciara.
If the night ended with Busta Rhymes, you would have gotten your money’s worth, but Ciara strapped the crowd in and got them ready for takeoff. She added a slanted LED dance floor and a modest number of dancers to the stage. And after her opening melody of “Goodies,” “Get Up,” and “Oh,” I wondered why Ciara was not a bigger artist.
Genuinely awed by her commanding stage presence and dancing, the crowd was reminded why she dominated R&B and pop charts in the early 2000s as she succeeded in keeping up the energy created by Busta, doing a fair amount of crowd work herself. She closed with “Level Up” as the tired crowd rallied for Missy.
Finally, it was time to go into space. A man in a glowing green alien-themed outfit told the crowd that much before Missy Elliott put on one of the most intense and unrelenting performances I have ever seen.
Like watching a live montage of her career, dancers filled the entire glowing stage floor while Missy rapped, surrounded by flashing lights onstage and in the crowd from the LED wristbands given to everyone before the show.
She changed outfits, nodding to the unconventional clothing she wore in her music videos; she flew through the crowd on a smaller suspended stage and, at one point, even paraded around the arena floor rapping “Work It” as more than 20 dancers followed.
Closing the show, Timbaland, Busta Rhymes and eventually Ciara rejoined Missy as they collectively did “Lose Control” to send the crowd home in a frenzy, leaving everyone wanting more in the best way.
It would be nice to believe that Missy Elliott waited this long to tour because the technology needed to put on the calibre of performance befitting her imagination did not exist 20 years ago. But whatever the real reason, the final thought as the crowd spilled gleefully into the chilly Toronto night was thankfulness. It was a show to remember.