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Missy Elliott Delivers Incredible, Mind-Blowing Experience at Crypto.com Arena – Daily News
Hip-hop icon Missy Elliott headlined the Cryto.com Arena on Thursday, July 11, 2024, on her first headlining tour in nearly 30 years as a critically and commercially acclaimed artist. She will play the Crypto again on Friday, July 12, 2024. (Photography by Alexis Smith with crowdMGMT, @Lexi.Photography0414 with @crowdMGMT Creative Direction and Editing by Derek Blanks with crowdMGMT, @MrDBlanks with @crowdMGMT)
Hip-hop icon Miss Elliott may have waited nearly 30 years to stage his first headlining tour, But goodness, when Missy finally does something, she does it really, really well.
Out of This World – The Experience landed at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday, July 11 for its first two nights in Los Angeles, and it’s definitely both: an over-the-top show and an experience unlike anything fans have seen from Elliott, or really, from almost anyone else, before.
The show is a packed 70 minutes, but it felt like a full-on party. Elliott’s main course was packed with visuals, set design, costumes and choreography, after the opening bites of the night were served via sets from his longtime friends and frequent collaborators Timbaland, Busta Rhymes and Ciara.
The show was organized into four acts, each with about seven songs and a loose storyline that connected them like an intergalactic journey through a hip-hop galaxy. A jester-like emcee introduced each act, giving Elliott and the dancers a few minutes to change costumes.
The first act set the whole journey in motion, a door on a traveling spaceship lifting to reveal Elliott and his hip-hop-onaut dancers stepping off a board into a funky foreign world. Purple light beams descended from above to capture them: Elliott in a jewel-encrusted white-and-gold space helmet and jumpsuit, the dancers in similarly shiny uniforms, and only after the transporter beams went off and Missy and company collapsed to the ground did the show fully begin.
Songs like “Throw It Back,” “Cool Off,” and “4 My People” rushed by before Elliott stopped to wave to the crowd.
“LA, what’s going on?!” he shouted, smiling broadly. “We’re leaving Earth now, but we’ll get you back!”
“Sock It 2 Me” followed, featuring a giant, photorealistic Missy in the red and white Mega Man space suit she wore in the music video. After “I’m Really Hot,” for which the visuals shifted to dancing flames, Act 1 ended 15 minutes after it began.
Costume designer June Ambrose deserves a special mention before we move on. Ambrose, who has worked with the artist on music video and performance outfits since Elliott’s early days, has outdone herself with this tour. In a recent interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Ambrose described making nearly 250 different costumes for Elliott and her dancers.
Thursday, the looks changed with each act, from Elliott’s crystal-covered space-age attire in Act I to the all-black dominatrix-style look in Act II, which at one point spilled over into a bit of Elliott’s signature oversized outerwear. Act III saw lime-green sparkles and gloss. Act IV offered neon graffiti streetwear, Elliott in an oversized lime-green fur hat, her flats sporting baseball caps with neon mohawks atop.
Featuring eight different looks for Elliott, the tour will feature completely different costumes each night and a few different songs on the setlist.
The second act opened with Kanec, the host, performing a tap dance intro to the theme of “Singing in the Rain” before Elliott, this time dressed in black, came in for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, from her 1997 debut album “Supa Dupa Fly”.
After she and two dancers climbed onto a large round platform and “flew” above the crowd during “Gossip Folks,” she descended to perform “Get Ur Freak On,” one of her signature hits, on a set that resembled an underground Mad Max Thunderdome with dancers writhing on a steel fence behind her as she sang.
I said this show was completely insane, right?
Act III felt like the calmest of a anything-but-calm set, with “One Minute Man,” “Beep Me 911,” and “Hot Boyz” among the highlights.
“I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years,” Elliott said at one point. “If you came here tonight, you think outside the box and you’re special.”
The feeling is mutual, Miss Elliott.
Act IV tied it all together as Missy and the crew of the Starship Out Of This World finally returned home. “Ching-A-Ling” kicked off this club-themed finale. “Work It,” another of her classics, saw her weaving her way through the crowd on the arena floor, and even climbing the stairs a bit at one point, while singing and rapping her fast-paced lyrics.
After “Pass That Dutch,” his friends and openers all came out for a song with Elliott: Timbaland for “Up Jumps Da Boogie,” Busta Rhymes for “Touch It,” and Ciara for “Lose Control.”
Elliott smiled widely as the show finally concluded—he really does have a wonderful smile, and it makes you wonder how long it will be before he decides to go back on tour. You could easily see this act kicking ass at Coachella, and he’s done a fair few festivals over the years, even avoiding a proper tour.
His manager Mona Scott-Young told us last month that before Elliott decided to do this tour, he was considering a Las Vegas residency. Here’s an idea: Put him in the Sphere, where the immersive sound and visuals would blow everyone away.
Whatever he wants, it will be out of this world.