I can't say that I was the first one, because I have influences of CeeLo Green and Goodie Mob, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Do or Die from Chicago, Arrested Development. Well, I can't say for sure, but I could say you recognize it more ever since I did it. “Me making the doorway wider, and then having so many other people walk through it, I would say is undeniable.”ĭo you think you paved the way for other artists to cross over to country music or blend genres? Thankfully, people understood that when it came to me and they allowed me to do it.
I wanted you to still be able to tell that it's Nelly on the record, even if I was doing something different. It's a different flow, but they're still doing them. If you look at a lot of the people who are killing it melodically, they can switch it up from song to song, but still be in pocket. Whatever the beat is doing, that's what my approach is, which is what a lot of people do today. "Ride Wit Me" don't sound like "Country Grammar." And “"Country Grammar" don't sound like "E.I." And "E.I." don't sound like "Batter Up." None of those sound the same.įor me, it was just an approach of being able to find the way in the beat. But I think it would do an injustice to everything that I worked for to act like I don't have a significant influence on the game. And the thing about my melody is, all of my songs were different. And then on the other hand, I don't want to act like I'm the first one to use melody. Well, this is a thin line for me, because I don't want to act like I don't understand my worth to the game. But we were able to thank some of the people for supporting Nelly for so long.ĭo you think you have a place in the conversation about popularizing melodic rap? Unfortunately, that didn't turn out the way that we wanted. We took five hip-hop acts and five country acts, and we were going to merge the two over a weekend in St. Considering that I had such a broad fan base that extends from country all the way to hip-hop, and everybody in between, I wanted it to be the first festival that combined country and hip-hop. It was called My Smoking Hayride Festival. Louis area to bring something special-not just to St.
We partnered with Live Nation and a lot of local businesses around the St. This was one of them. It was supposed to be the first year of my festival that we had been planning for a couple years. Louis because, musically, we don't have that many options. We wanted to do something really dope for the city of St. We started coming into plans on it last year, around the 19th anniversary. "We don't know if hip-hop actually gets a chance to rock across different formats the way that it does without Country Grammar," he says. "We may hear pop radio and rhythmic, of course, but now we’re talking top 40 and country and some of these other formats that we may not have gotten the chance to be heard on." He adds, "I would say that I raised the bar as far as being able to have a hip-hop album that can compare to anybody's album: to a pop artist, to an R&B artist, to a country artist, or whatever."ĭid you always plan to put on a concert for the 20th anniversary of Country Grammar? Though he won't take credit for being the first rapper to use melody, Nelly does acknowledge his influence on blurring genre lines across hip-hop music. or Atlanta-places that were already established-to believe that they could be a major player in this game if they worked their ass off, and if they came up with something that was appreciated by everybody," he tells Complex. "I think allowed people from not just New York, L.A. Nelly suggests Country Grammar played a big role in influencing a new generation of rappers. But the album’s importance goes far beyond the numbers. In 2016, it became the eighth rap album to reach Diamond certification (commemorating sales of 10 million or more copies) by the RIAA. Twenty years after its release, Country Grammar is still considered one of the most pivotal rap albums of the 2000s. In honor of the 20th anniversary of his Diamond-certified debut album, Country Grammar, he is participating in a virtual concert on July 25, where he will perform the historic album in its entirety for the first time. After reminding fans of the strength of his discography with a nostalgic set during a Verzuz battle with Ludacris earlier this year, Nelly is gearing up for another big event.
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