Nelly: Classic or Dud?

The jury is out until Nelly's follow up and various St.Lunatic solo records. If they can keep the momentum up, they were talented and if not...

"E.I." is the real classic though: a totally addictive and instantly recognisable chorus and some of the most beautiful, none-more-stoned bounce ever concocted. Nelly's narrative is more interesting too.

Isn't it a bit early to really have a great opinion on him? He's good, definitely good, Country Grammar was pretty immediately great to me, I love the bounce on it. Batter Up is FANTASTIC.

I'll refrain from making any qualitative judgements regarding Nelly, because for whatever reason, I can't stand the sumbitch. I can't stand the similarities between the songs, I can't stand his "E.I. / uh oh" schtick, I can't stand his crap-ass monotone blathering, and I sure as hell can't stand the motherfuckin' bling bling. Nor can I stand any of his proteges / offshoots / hangers on. I have the songs stuck in my fucking head, and I hate it, and I hate him. GOD DAMN HIM.

And what's with that Phantom of the Opera / Hannibal Lechter mask bullshit?

> You can't sell 7 million albums without having some type of talent.

> I believe Nelly was simply in the right place at the right time.

> I do not like Nelly as an artist, but his production is excellent,

> but as a pure artist Nelly is cliched and played.

Phoo boy, make up your mind.

Anyway, I find Nelly rather lightw--wait, that's not the point, is it? Okay, after the first couple listens, I find his singles totally boring.

wow -- funny that this thread ended on such an angry note. so, reappraising Country Grammar almost ten years after release, what does everybody think? How has this dude's sound dated?

Just curious as I've been buying up a lotta rap albums from this timeframe for a buck or so on Amazon, and don't want to leave stones unturned, but my brain has mostly shut this dude's music out of the memory banks.

Country Grammar is pretty damn great, couldn't really get with anything after that tbh.

nelly is great

country grammar is amazing as is the first st lunatics album

he was obv spotty after that but the joints w/ rowland & mcgraw are incredible -- so melodic

u think 'over and over again' is incredible, really?? sounds like nostalgia

country grammar the song is totally amazing, still my fav thing he's done. i wasn't super crazy about the rest of the album but it's pretty good.

the radio edits for the singles from that album always bleeped the lyrics in such a way that actually somehow enhanced the songs' catchiness. i was actually quite impressed, even though that's a very strange thing to be impressed by.

i heard nelly's new single on the radio a couple days ago. it's not bad.

for real deej

i've talked about the bleeping on ilm before -- "midwest swing" using barn animal noises etc

"over and over" is the "i swear" of the 2000s

in any event...

LET ME HEAR YAH! LET ME HEAR YAH! BILL GATES DONALD TRUMP LET ME HEAR YAH!

Country Grammar is pretty damn great, couldn't really get with anything after that tbh.

― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, August 3, 2010 4:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

except a whole lot of the singles

country grammar & e.i. are the best. ride with me is aite. dilemma has its moments. hot in herre is classic. dont like/remember the rest

oh yeah then theres tip drill

Brilliant run of singles but I've never been able to listen to any of his albums without skipping over and over and over again.

singles from nellyville are all varying degrees of i f/w this

even "pimp juice", which i totally accept that no one will ever back me up on, is a better 3rd-rate c. mayfield than pharrell

"pimp juice" is actually okay, but yeah, no

i hafta say the line "til you top the Super Bowl, put your mouth on lock" always bothered me considering that he was a last minute replacement for somebody and gave a pretty unmemorable performance.

he also had a few lines that were kinda groan-inducing like "you can't hold me if your last name was hand". but at least his music was catchy enough to make ya forget

i'll totally back pimp juice

i heard nelly's new single on the radio a couple days ago. it's not bad.

― teledyldonix, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 11:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i call bullshit on this. there is no way any radio station anywhere is playing a new nelly song.

we should def do a nelly singles poll though

nevermind, we totally did one and i forgot: nelly singles poll

i'm serious re: the radio play! granted i live in nelly's hometown so i guess they might feel somewhat obligated to play any shit he puts out. like when they put his "wadsyaname" into heavy rotation when that came out -_-

yeah whenever i'm in stl i flip to the rap stations and always invariably end up saying to myself... "i didn't even think that they still cared about murphy lee here either"

country grammar is still pretty great front-to-back. (great, great bass sounds on that album.)

love 'batter up'

i heard nelly's new single on the radio a couple days ago. it's not bad.

― teledyldonix, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 11:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i call bullshit on this. there is no way any radio station anywhere is playing a new nelly song.

― The chickbad from the ludicrous 'ludacris' song (some dude), Wednesday, August 4, 2010 8:51 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eating my words, Nelly actually has a big top 20 hit song in 2010:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDLEx9GE98

song is ass

the one i was talking about, btw, was "tipping in the club." i actually haven't heard this one on the radio.

er, excuse me, apparently it's actually "TIPPIN in DA club"

So I was revisiting Country Grammar and Nellyville the other day, and both of those hold up nicely. Haven't heard any of the albums past Nellyville in full, but I know singles like "Just a Dream" (2010) don't retain any of the distinctive regional accent/slang/vibe that's so prevalent on the first two albums, and it may as well be any generic Top 40 pop-rapper singing it. So when exactly did Nelly jump the shark with his albums? Is it worth picking up Suit, Sweat, Brass Knuckles, or anything after that? I realize it's diminishing returns after the first two, but I'm just wondering if any of the later albums preserve the St. Louis vibe as opposed to going full-on generic Top 40 radio rap.

Pretty small haul for Nelly bus bust:

The trooper was about to do an inspection of the vehicle when he reportedly smelled marijuana. He along with another trooper then searched the inside of the bus.

That’s where they found a plastic bag containing five colored crystal-type rocks that tested positive for methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia.

http://wate.com/2015/04/11/rapper-nelly-arrested-in-putnam-county-on-drug-charges/