Oops, St. Louis� main dirty Nelly spilled his McDonald�s fries on the hotel floor in the Trump hotel floor. Not to worry, he scoops a few off the top and throws the rest away taking full advantage of the ghetto ass 5-second rule. See, while being infectiously pop, the St. Lunatic representative isn�t so different.

These days, thing seem good for Nelly, who is dropped Nellyville, his 3 million-and-counting follow up to 2000�s 9 million seller, Country Grammar. Despite the whooping sales, Nelly still gets the �the business� from defenders of hip-hop like KRS-One and Nas. Here Nelly vents, but keeps everything in perspective of his character, music and goals. 

AHH: What about the style differences on Nellyville. It seems like you have matured sound-wise. �Hot In Herre� seems a little rawer than the last singles. 

N: I actually thought [�Hot In Herre�] was a little more cleaner than even country grammar because, to this day, I don�t think people trip off the lyrics. If they flat out read it or flat out read the lyrics, you might be like �whoa,� know what I�m saying? But, now I�m basically panning out, just trying to bring he same type of flavor. 

AHH: Did anybody influence your style of rhyming?

N: It�s hard, because we are in the middle, so we didn�t have the Rakim�s in our hood to see growing up. We didn�t have the NWA�s the Ice T�s, the Scarface�s and stuff. So, for us, we had to talk all that and just decide what we wanted to listen to. Now, I just do my thing. We just trying to add to the game. WE tend to try the stuff that�s real different. And that�s what I try to tell everybody, �ok you want to try to get in the game, ok, that�s cool. But what�s your delivery? What can you bring to the table? 

AHH: Now you have had people basically hate on you or whatever you want to call it for being what you would call pop.

N: Selling albums.

AHH: What do you say to those people that hate or criticize you? 

N: I just like to know where it�s coming from. What are you trying to say? Why do you say I�m pop? Because I sold a lot of albums? Who makes an album and says, �Once my album sells [so many units], take it off the shelf.� Nobody. If it was possible for you to sell 9 million albums, you would touch an audience that you might not have touched before or might not have liked [hip-hop]. Yeah, people try to condemn me for selling records, because that�s all they can condemn me for. That�s all it could be.

AHH: So how does it feel to have the level of success that most rappers, old school, new school, now school will never see ever? 

N: Well, to the old school � the old school paved the way for me to be here and achieve this kind of success. And new school, I think that�s what everybody is striving for � being all they can be. Like you said, I might not get to this point ever again in my life or this may be the lowest point I get to in my life. You never know. I just keep pressing. 

AHH: Do you think you have been treated unfairly? 

N: By some people. But I get more good than I get bad. But you do get the bad. I just want to know where its coming from. A lot of people hating just to be hatin� and you can�t deal with that. You can�t right that. You can�t fight a person that�s hating to be hating that�s why I say where is it coming from. Give me an example of why you say this and maybe I can answer your question. If I answer your question and that�s not the scenario, then what are you going to do? Are you going to switch or are you going to say, �Well, I still don�t like him.� Then, you just hating. 

AHH: Let�s dive into a rumor we heard. Are you and Da Brat an item? 

N: [Laughs] No, that�s my dirty. I knew Brat before I had a deal. You know she [from] Chi-Town. Nah, I ain�t dating Da Brat. Where you hear that from? 

AHH: I can�t say. [Laughs]

N: Oh, but that�s a new one. [Laughs]

AHH: What about your clothing line? 

N: It�s off the word �vocal� but Vokal though. They are clothes that just speak for themselves. 

AHH: Is that the slogan?

N: Yeah, get all that in there. It�s going real well. I been to Magic [Fashion Convention] like twice as far as groundbreaking, trying to get it off the ground. But its hard because you are working with people who got the funds behind the situation not all the way seeing things like you would want to see it�because they are in a office every day. You in the streets so to speak. You would want to see things go faster than what they are but obviously [the financial backers of Vokal] have had some type of success to be in the position that they are in to have the type of money that they have. But, just because you have been right five times in a row, don�t mean it�s going to be six. 

I try to get them to see things differently. I like to see things my way. I like to do a lot of things my way and you have that type of conflict going on its like �whoa.� But other than that, the clothing line itself is doing really well. I appreciate the support everybody�s been giving it so far. We are going to get a few ads with other artists as well. The athletes love it. I guess because it�s so big. A lot of the hoopers love it because our 3x might look like 5x. 

AHH: Do you approve the designs? 

N: Yeah I approve a large majority of the styles especially the sh*t that I be putting on. [Laughs]

AHH: What�s the hip-hop scene in St. Louis like?

N: Right now it�s real good. People got that light in they eye, because the sh*t can really happen. Before people were doing it just because they loved [hip-hop], but now [in addition to loving it] they believe they can make it. It�s helping a lot to because we get a lot of support from local radio. Its getting real hot. 

AHH: What was the situation with the mall thing. 

N: Well I went in the mall for the remix video for �Welcome To Atlanta� and I had my doo rag on and my ball cap on. I been in there before the same way. I don�t know if they ever tripped off me, but today they was trippin.� They were like, �Yo he needs to take his doo rag off or leave.� And the guy was trying to radio to him, who I was. And you could hear the speakers [over the walkie talkie], �I don�t give a damn who he is. He either takes it off or he leaves.� So I was like, �Cool, dirty, I�m out.� 

I know St. Louis and I know Missouri. I know our history. We are the only Midwest state to have slaves and after the slave trade was abolished, we still had ours. That�s because we weren�t a Contfederate State. So, I know we got a lot of growth to do. 

They asked me to leave and I walked out. 

You had some people that organized something [a boycott of the mall] that I knew nothing about. People just took it upon themselves to organize something in the name of Nelly and then when Nelly didn�t show up, �Oh boycott Nelly now.� I�m out on the road. I�m busy. I already know not to go back there and these were [boycotters] from out of town. We don�t even have our own people organizing this. They tried to come in from outta town to boycott something they knew nothing about. But if you are upset about the rule, let the boycott be about the rule. I wasn�t the first person to get kicked out of this damn place and I ain�t going to be the last. Don�t boycott over Nelly�s name or nothing like that. That�s the damn rule. Do I think the rule is unfair? Yes. Am I going back in there? No. That�s like somebody throwing a surprise party for you and and not telling you about it and get mad when you don�t show. 

AHH: You have had a tremendous amount of success with sales and clothing lines. You�ve experienced this short-term success in heavy doses. What are your long-term goals?

N: I want to sign other acts, not just from St. Louis, but just mid-west. Then all over after that. The Midwest that is my focus. 

I look at the people who have been able to achieve success outside of the rap game � The Ice Cube�s, the Jay-Z�s, The P.Diddy�s, The Master P�s. I want to look at those who have been able to use rap to become real Black entrepreneurs and not just Black rappers.


Source: Allhiphop.com
By Jigsaw
 

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