MISSY ELLIOTT'S SUPA DUPA NOW!

THE HIP-HOP SUPERSTAR REVEALS HOW SHE OVERCAME HEALTH ISSUES AND ANXIETY FOR A BIG RETURN TO THE SPOTLIGHT

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

Missy Elliott is still working itand working hard. “I'm hanging in there," the hip-hop icon, 53, says after a long rehearsal for her upcoming tour. "It's full days, then I go home, and the work continues. But I feel good.

I'm super excited." As she should be. Her upcoming Out of This World The Missy Elliott Experience tour kicks off on July 4 and will also feature the four-time Grammy winner's close friends and longtime collaborators Ciara and Busta Rhymes. "Ciara had been asking me and asking me," Elliott says of touring together. "I'd be like, 'Okay,' but then I'd always find myself in the studio doing something else." The outing marks the first time the "Get Ur Freak On" and "Work It" rapper-producer has hit the road since 2004and, surprisingly, is her first headlining show.

The prolonged break was partly because of Elliott's difficult battle with Graves' disease that led to severe weight loss and a period of depression. But Elliott also says she's spent time out of the spotlight because "I'm most definitely an introvert." Despite her larger-than-life persona and groundbreaking music, "I'm shy," adds Elliott, who has also suffered from severe anxiety over the years. How she reconciles all that with music stardom is still beyond her. "I don't know," she says.

"It's one of those things I can't really explain."