Missy Elliott has opened up about her battle with the auto-immune disorder Graves’ Disease as she gears up for her first-ever headlining tour.
Next month, the pioneering rapper will head out on the Out Of This World Tour with support from Busta Rhymes, Timbaland and Ciara. This will be her first trek as a headliner as well as her first time back on the road in 20 years – this gap was due in part to her medical condition.
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In an interview with to PEOPLE published on Wednesday (June 19), she talked about overcoming said health issues and explained that she went through severe weight loss over the prolonged break included severe weight loss in addition to a period of depression. Thankfully, things are much better now thanks to her medication.
“Every day I wake, I’m blessed to be here and in good health,” she said. “I’m feeling so much better now. That was a run. Every now and then you get a little ache in the leg or the knee, but outside of that, I feel good.”
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Missy Elliott’s 24-city concert series will take the aforementioned quartet across North America this summer, beginning July 4 in Vancouver, Canada.
From there, the veteran rapper and her team will make stops in cities such as Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York and Toronto before closing things out on August 22 in Rosemont, Illinois.
A comedic trailer for the tour features Missy, Busta and CiCi dressed in extraterrestrial outfits as they walk out of a colossal spaceship, with a narrator saying: “The year 2024, these three icons come together to show you something you’ve never seen before.”
However, the trio quickly realize that they’ve landed on the wrong planet, with Bus-a-Bus taking the blame: “Ah shit! I done bust the wrong turn at Mars real quick.”
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Missy then calls up Timbo, before rerouting their voyage to its intended destination: Earth.
The trailer was directed by Dave Meyers, the Grammy-winning directed behind iconic Missy videos like “Get Ur Freak On” and “One Minute Man.”
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“This is an incredible time in my life as I am experiencing so many milestone ‘firsts,’” she said in a press release. “Being the FIRST female Hip Hop artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and now going out on my FIRST headline tour.
“Fans have been asking me to tour forever but I wanted to wait until I felt the time was right because I knew if I was ever going to do it, I had to do it big, and I had to do it with family! So get ready to be taken OUT OF THIS WORLD with me, Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland! We can’t wait to share this experience with the fans!”
