With a genre-defying discography that includes "Hot in Herre," "Dilemma" and his latest smash, "Just a Dream," it is comfortable to see why Billboard Magazine recognized Nelly as the #3 artist of the decade (2000-2009). Taking his best-selling and chart-topping performances on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 into consideration, there is no refuting Nelly`s impact on the current generation of music entertainers.
Even more impressive: this decade-long journey all began in St. Louis, Missouri - a city that is better-known for its jazz, blues and rock music exports.
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On November 15, 2010, the "rapper-preneur" will loose his fifth studio album, which has been aptly titled "5." In back of this effort, Nelly managed to force some time out of his busy schedule and fall down for an audience with Clayton Perry - reflecting on his entrance into the rap game, the bequest of M.C. Hammer, and the "line" side of the music business.
Over the preceding decade, you have become known for more than your rap skills. As you transitioned from being known as Nelly, the rapper, into Nelly, the businessman, what do you take to be the biggest professional lesson that you learned on the way?
When you're running a business, it is just release to be as successful as the drive you put into it. Now, don`t get it twisted. It`s not care I haven`t made mistakes. But I get been fortunate enough to have done so many other things correctly, that my mistakes kind of get covered up. That doesn`t happen for everybody. Some people make mistakes and they never get a prospect to recover. So I`ve been very fortunate. It`s not like I`m a star or doing anything that's really outside the line. But I`ve only been very fortunate to take from my mistakes and being able to know what makes for me and what doesn`t work for me. I wish to pass that direct line. When it comes to business, I don`t really deal with anything that has me stepping outside that line. And so far, so good, basically.
Over this decade-long journey, what do you take to be the "tipping point" or "breaking point" in your run for financial and corporate independence? Most of the time, when people think about the music business, they incline to concentrate on the "music" rather than the business?
To be honest, I`ve been thinking like that since I was a kid. I`ve been fairly independent for a long time. My parents got divorced when I was probably like six days old. And neither one of them could give to save me on their own. So I bounced around a lot and I stirred and lived with different people. I`ve been to like eight different schools. So when you do that, you get used to bouncing around and barely making it work.
When you select your music career into consideration, what do you mean is your biggest contribution to the contemporary music landscape?
I've done my fair share. But I see at the work of Hammer all the time. If you looking at Hammer when he first came out, everybody was dissing Hammer saying that he was too commercial. Why? Because he had a Pepsi deal. He had a cartoon. He was running on a cereal deal and all that. All the things you want you could take today. You love what I`m saying? So those are approximately of the doors that I walked through to get where I`m at. And so take a lot of other brothers. We can now step into that realm. And he showed that we could be exactly as marketable as the "pop star." So when doors get opened for me, they go backwards to the doors others have opened up for me, the Jays, the Puffs, the Dr. Dres, the Ice Cubes - everybody that`s made money outside the kingdom of music. I use them as inspiration. Hopefully, there are some kids out there watching me, and hopefully I am opening up some doors for them. You simply hope the wheel continues.
Back in 2004, you released a couple with Tim McGraw that was very innovative, even by today's standards. Why do you think cross-generational and cross-genre collaborations are so few and far between? In the future, what sort of musical partnerships would you wish to see more often? What present musical barriers would you care for artists to overcome?
I simply don`t wish it when masses are frightened to try and do what they need to do. That handicaps creativity. And I wish to say that I`m "musically free." And when I say that, what I think by that, I find that I can get a hit record with anyone. And I find that as tenacious as I am creative and I put myself in a place where that isn`t compromised, it doesn`t look odd when I do it. It doesn`t feel like a stretch when I do it now, because people experience that this is what I do. I`m not afraid to do it, so long as the s**t is right.
I really wish that word that you used: "creatively free." With your forthcoming album, 5. in what ways receive you pushed yourself that you have not done so in the past?
I only went it doing me. When you`re "musically free," nothing seems like a dispute for you. When you remember about it, I`ve done country, pop, man, the top of the pop. Remember my collabo with N`Sync on "Girlfriend." Christina Aguilera. Tim McGraw, like you mentioned earlier. And I`ve been at the top of various different genres of music. So nothing seems far-fetched. And it`s not like I go into an album trying to offend people, because I don`t mean I can offend people anymore. I believe the floor for mass is when it doesn`t succeed.
You take up a very good point, when you say that you have been successful on the charts of various different genres. What do you recollect it is around you and your artistry that makes it work like "magic"? And without disrespecting any other artist out there, the fact of the subject is this: there are comparatively few other artists that have been capable to do what you get done. Why not?
I hardly think people find that it`s genuine. And they don`t smell that I`m stretching. Every since I came into the game, my music has been diverse - from one extreme to the next. You know, I`ll hit you with "Country Grammar," "E.I." "Ride with Me," "Batter Up," "Hot in Herre," "Dilemma" - and none of those songs sound alike. But I made it successful. And my fans appreciate what I do. And they require that from me. That`s not going to go for everybody. But if you need high reward, you gotta take high risk.
Although you are financially secure, and you do not always take to show another album, what drives you to continue producing and creating music? What expectations have you placed upon yourself for this album`s success?
Man, for the bed of music. The like grounds we all get into it. You get out of it what you put into it. I love music. Even if I`m not in it, or it`s not as successful as it was in the past, I`m still going to have music.
Where does this passion come from?
It comes from my family. My uncle was into music. My mother was into music. My uncle and my mother had a set together. And it kinda came through that. I was ever around music. My uncle used to let me and all my cousins singing Jackson 5 records! [laughing]
Now, it is one thing to get a passion for music, and another to give your spirit to it. When do you mean you made that decision?
I`ve ever wanted it. But being from St. Louis, that`s not actually part of your thinking process. You don`t know if it could be real, because you haven`t seen anyone else do it. It might`ve been different if I was from New York. My whole life would`ve probably been engulfed, because that`s the heartland [of hip-hop]. And it would`ve been different if I was in LA, because they have a deep music history beyond hip-hop. But being from St. Louis, it has you wondering: "Is this really leaving to happen? Can this really happen?"
Saying that, now that you have blazed a dog for a new generation of St. Louis artists, what sort of feedback do you learn from them? I am certain you get a lot of love.
From some people I do. But I mean, you still will have haters - no matter what field you're in. There is ever passing to be a grouping of mass that don`t need to see you succeed - for whatever reason. Either they need your office or they believe they can do it better. And that`s cool, because the plot is extensive subject for them. If you believe you can do better, then raise it! Do it! That`s one thing about this game: it never closes. This is a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year store! It`s wide open - at any time and at any point.
Having exhausted the preceding decade in the music business, what comes to your head when you see over your calling and the flow province of hip-hop?
What a lot of people don`t understand is that I came into the back on my own. I didn`t let anyone introduce me, or say: "Yo, this is my guy, Nelly." I didn`t possess a guy that had already proven himself to present me to the world, or take a super-producer that introduced me as his new artist. I basically got throw into the ocean. And I had to instruct myself how to swim.
Well, you actually only had two choices: sink or swim! [laughing]
And fortunately enough, I made it to the shore.
Outside the existence of music, you are very active in the community. And sadly, more frequently than not, entertainers rarely get the chance to speak about what they do behind the scenes. Tell me about your new venture, Celebrity Sweat.
Celebrity Sweat is essentially a behind-the-scenes look at the workout routines of your favorite celebrities. I was chosen as the first. Basically, you`ll see various clips of my actual workout routines and my favorite exercises with a personal trainer, and we`ll show you ways to integrate it into the things that you could do. So_ I`m on there looking like Billy Blanks! [laughing] But I`m not putting you through 90 minutes of straight torture or anything like that! [laughing continues] The direction of my first DVD is triceps and chest.
I am certain that you are intimately aware of America`s issue with obesity.
Oh, man! The subject with obesity, especially with children, is incredible! I actually can`t think it! To recognise that there are kids out here that get less than a knot of physical action is crazy to me! When I was a kid, I probably got ten miles in a day! [laughing] Runnin` up and devour the f**kin` block! [laughing continues] For real! Running round the block, a corner, a tree - something! [laughing continues] Kids hardly get any recess when they go to school, they get home, go directly into the house, and sit in-front of the TV or a computer. I think they`re just sitting in buildings all day. And that`s d**n-near depressing. So I do encourage children to get out more and be more athletic. And hopefully, this video will inspire some kids to get into the gym.
I certainly hope so! And what about your other philanthropic activities?
I give two non-profits: "4Sho4Kids [Foundation]" and "Jes Us 4 Jackie." With 4Sho4Kids, we try to serve as many kids in the local community as we can. We`ve done several things, like "Feed the Children," with 1,500 families that we`ve fed. And the tutor-mentor program that we`ve done, where middle school students tutor elementary students, high school students tutor middle school students, and college students mentor high school students. And "Jes Us 4 Jackie," you recognize that is in retention of my sister - [Jackie Donahue] - who passed from leukemia. So we get people signed up for bone cell and stem cell registry. And we try to recover donors for people who need stem cell transplants and things of that nature. And we`re trying to hold things going - for as long as possible.
For more info on Nelly, visit his official website.
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