One of the most significant female artists in the annals of contemporary music, Missy Elliott is making history once again in 2024 the OUT OF THIS WORLD — The Missy Elliott Experience – her first-ever headline tour, accompanied by her longtime co-stars Busta Rhymes, Ciara and special guest Timbaland. An avant-garde solo superstar, pioneering songwriter-producer and across-the-board cultural icon, the four-time GRAMMY® Award winning Elliott has attained unprecedented success, including 22 GRAMMY® nominations spanning three decades, eight MTV Video Music Awards and sales now exceeding 30M in the U.S. alone. All of Missy’s six studio albums have each been RIAA platinum certified or better, marking her among the only female rappers ever to achieve that remarkable accomplishment. Among her countless triumphs, 2023 saw Elliott named as the first female hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, rightly declaring her “a true path breaker in a male-dominated genre.”
Elliott’s most recent work, 2019’s acclaimed EP, ICONOLOGY, drew instant applause upon its surprise release, with USA Today declaring it “a master class at the school of Missy Misdemeanor Elliott.” That same year saw the iconic star making history as the first female hip-hop artist ever to receive the MTV Video Music Awards’ prestigious Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. 2019 also saw her break new ground as the first female hip-hop artist and third-ever rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition, Elliott became the first female rapper to receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music, celebrating her lasting contributions to music and popular culture.
Further accolades followed in 2021, with Elliott named among the 12 inaugural inductees for the new Atlanta landmark, The Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame and later honored with her own star on the world famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022, Elliott’s hometown of Portsmouth, VA celebrated its favorite daughter by presenting her with the Key to the City and renaming a portion of McLean Street to “Missy Elliott Boulevard” and declaring October 17 as Missy Elliott Day. What’s more, Virginia’s Norfolk State University awarded Elliott with the Presidential Commencement Medallion and an honorary degree at their fall 2022 commencement ceremony, acknowledging her “outstanding professional achievements and extraordinary contributions to public service.”
In addition to her historic induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective presented Elliott with its Recording Academy Global Impact Award, honoring her personal and professional achievements in the music industry. The 2023 GRAMMY® Awards saw Elliott among the superstars celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, joining such icons as LL Cool J, Ice-T, Method Man, Busta Rhymes and Salt-N-Pepa for a landmark performance honoring the genre’s diverse history. Additional 2023 tributes include the Black Music Honors’ “Music Innovator Icon” award as well as a special ESSENCE cover story celebrating her headline performance at the 2023 ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans. Indeed, Missy Elliott deserves all the flowers and then some. Now, with her OUT OF THIS WORLD — The Missy Elliott Experience hitting arenas across North America with Ciara, Busta Rhymes and special guest Timbaland – and new music always on the horizon – Missy Elliott continues to stand tall over pop culture as a true creative architect and revolutionary artist, her prophetic sound and vision as groundbreaking and influential as ever before.
Busta Rhymes persists and perseveres as one of history’s most indomitable, impactful and influential rappers. His patented tongue-twisting flow and lyrical fireworks changed the art form, flooding the culture with speed and begging it to maintain pace. He has garnered a staggering 12 GRAMMY® Award nominations, sold over ten million albums worldwide and delivered seven Top 10 debuts on the Billboard 200. Dubbed “the greatest performer of all time” by JAY-Z and “the James Brown of hip-hop” by Phife Dawg, he notably made it from the humblest of beginnings in East Flatbush Brooklyn, all the way to the White House visiting with President Barack Obama. In retrospect, Pitchfork hailed the seminal When Disaster Strikes… as “the turning point, the moment Busta Rhymes became the Joker of the deck that got to stay in the game.” He is a rare force of nature who started off with Leaders of the New School and has collaborated with everyone from Dr. Dre, Janet Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey to Dave Chappelle, Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Rock. Esteemed outlets such as Billboard, Vibe and The Source placed him on their list of the Top 50 MCs of All Time, while MTV has called him “one of hip-hop’s greatest visual artists.” BET Jams crowned Busta’s “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” as the “Greatest Hip-Hop Video of All-Time.” He was named the 2023 BET Icon/Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. As an accomplished actor, Busta’s diverse career filmography spans the acclaimed “Higher Learning,” “Narc” and “Finding Forrester.” His animated hits include The Rugrats Movie and blockbusters such as Shaft and Halloween: Resurrection. Busta launched the next phase of his career with his 2023 aptly titled album, BLOCKBUSTA, executive produced by Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz via Busta’s label, The Conglomerate ENT. and distributed by Epic Records. The game is still just trying to catch up to this Icon.
Ciara is a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Over her 20-year career, she has sold over 23 million records and 22 million singles worldwide, including chart-topping hits “Goodies,” “Ride,” “Oh,” “1, 2 Step,” “I Bet,” “Level Up” and “How We Roll.” Ciara is not only known for her vocal talent and dance moves, but she has starred in both TV and film roles, most recently the reimagined The Color Purple. Ciara is the founder and CEO of Beauty Marks Entertainment (BME), a company at the vanguard of the fast-changing music industry. With a business model built on fully supporting the artist, the female-led enterprise places Ciara at the forefront of forward-thinking entertainers taking an entrepreneurial approach to their careers. Along with husband Russell Wilson, she launched The House of LR&C, a new concept in retail with a focus on doing good. In keeping with her entrepreneurial spirit, Ciara is the co-owner of Ten To One rum and recently launched her skincare line OAM (On A Mission) which provides clinical level results through vitamin C. As part of her ongoing philanthropy work, she co-founded the Why Not You Foundation with husband Russell Wilson which is dedicated to fighting poverty through education and empowering today’s youth to lead with a “why not you” attitude. Most recently they became New York Times Bestselling authors with the release of their first children’s book “Why Not You” (Random House) which was inspired by the work they do through their foundation.
Multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning producer, artist, author and entrepreneur, Timbaland is one of the greatest minds in music history. With more top-ten hits than Elvis Presley or the Beatles, he has taught the world to “say it with sound.” Dubbed the Emperor of Sound and ranked No. 3 by Billboard on a list of 50 of the greatest producers of the 21st century. Timbaland’ the musical mastermind is behind the most memorable hits of our times. With over 18-Grammy nominations, four-Grammy wins and 200+ ASCAP Music awards, his indelible imprint has been stamped on countless hits from some of the most successful and legendary artists in the world. From Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” and “Big Pimpin,” to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” and “Cry Me A River,” Aaliyah’s “One In A Million,” Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” and “Work It,” Ginuwine’s “Pony,” and One Republic’s “Apologize” amongst many others, Timbaland’s credits have established him as one of the most iconic producers of all time. To date, Timbaland has released two books, a biography aptly titled The Emperor of Sound and his children’s book Nighttime Symphony, and in the middle of the Global Pandemic, he and Swizz Beatz launched VERZUZ. The series garnered a Webby Award for Special Achievement – “Break the Internet” as it crushed the Instagram record for livestreaming. Timbaland and Swizz received the “Shine A Light Award” at the 2020 BET Awards, while Bloomberg Businessweek included them among, “The 50 Most Influential People: ‘The People Who Changed Global Business” in 2020. Within a year, VERZUZ also won a NCAAP Image Award for “Outstanding Show (Series or Special).” Dozens of television shows, a Billboard cover and more have chronicled and studied “The VERZUZ Effect.”
Founded by Timbaland and his business partner Gary Marella, Beatclub the music tech platform is disrupting the music business by offering an all in one solution for music creators to make millions in revenue through syncs, selling beats, sample packs, acapellas, services and more. Some of Beatclub’s equity holders include Justin Timberlake, J Cole, Tommy Brown, Tainy, Mike Dean and more.
