Hailing from St. Louis, Cornell Haynes Jr., aka Nelly, has
looked past labels and brought pop to hip-hop and rap to country. With a
trademark band-aid on his cheek and stunning good looks, Nelly made his
presence known in 2000 with his debut album, Country Grammar. Chockfull
of irresistible hooks and clever lyrics delivered with a laidback style,
Nelly’s first offering to the masses was a huge success, selling over 8 million
copies.
Born on November 2, 1974, Nelly showed great promise as a
baseball player, but his first real attempt at fame was with his close
childhood friends and the rap group, St. Lunatics. After several failed
attempts to land a record deal, in 1996 the group disbanded, and Nelly went
solo. It proved to be a fortuitous decision.
Nelly continued to perform solo, and eventually he attracted
attention from record producers at Universal. In 2000, Nelly’s first album, Country
Grammar, was released. The album didn’t reflect any of the styles coming
from the East or West Coast rappers at the time, and Nelly’s unique delivery
and cunning play on words and the local St. Louis dialect brought him fans
yearning for a new voice in hip-hop.
Still loyal to his friends in the St. Lunatics, Nelly
reunited the band in 2001, and together they released the album, Free City,
which included the hit single, “Midwest Swing.” Although Country Grammar
was a hit, Nelly still had a lot to prove if he was to live up to his
self-proclaimed number one status. In the summer of 2002, Nelly backed up his
words with action and released his second solo album, Nellyville.
By any standard, Nellyville was a huge success.
Within one week of its release, Nellyville held the number one spot in
ten Billboard categories. The album eventually went platinum six times over
and earned Nelly a Grammy nomination for best rap album.
In 2004 Nelly followed up on Nellyville’s success
with the double album Sweat and Suit. Sweat was a rap
album that went to number two on the Billboard charts, and Suit, an
R&B album, which features an unlikely duet with Tim McGraw, debuted at
number one. Keeping in line with Nelly’s long line of successes, in 2005, the
single “Grillz,” which features Paul Wall, was released and went to number one
on the Billboard charts.