Nelly Was Worried We'd Kick Him in the Nuts

Nelly and Noisey.

I don’t usually put much stock in YouTube comments, but I did laugh when I read a couple of the remarks regarding this latest ep of Made in America – Made in St. Louis. One thoughtful YT user—who goes by the name of The Crack Addict—noted, “The girl is in love with Nelly.” The girl The Crack Addict is talking about is me. I would like to point out that I am not in fact in love with Nelly, charming though he may be. But having said that, sitting in front of him, swinging my legs and swiveling in a leather office chair at Nelly’s St. Louis HQ, I was reminded that he does occupy a special place in my heart. I'm of the opinion that all the best music triggers a memory. For me, Nelly's songs act as a time machine that transports me to those few months when I was living in Oregon, on an exchange from my school in the UK. “Ride Wit Me”—with its rolling melody, lyrics about getting high, cruising around, and the merits of “thicky thicky thick” girls—immediately brings back memories of how every house party I went at the time seemed to end up with me running away from the cops, through a hole in the fence. Back in those days Country Grammar was on loop.

I’m sure most people have a similar Nelly-memory. His music has always been party music and as such can only induce THE BEST TIMES memories. Unless of course you got dumped at a club and ended up drinking so much you had to go outside and barf in a bush and your friends totally forgot you were even at the club so they left you in the bush till you woke up at dawn because a police dog was licking your face. But like—even then—if you listened to Nelly and had a little reminisce, chances are you would laugh.

Released in 2000, Nelly’s debut album went on to sell 8.5 million records in the US alone. (Its follow up Nellyville, which spawned The Neptunes-produced super-smash “Hot in Herre,” came a close second with over six million). Since then his seamless blend of rap with pop vocal hooks has provided the blueprint for crossover acts like Drake, Future, and Rich Homie Quan (to name a few). Last year he dropped his seventh record, M.O., a collection which boasts an ode to Rick James, collaborations with 2 Chainz, T.I., and randomly, the Florida Georgia Line, not mention the minimal elastic groove of “Get Like Me,” with Pharrell and Nick Minaj. (On the other end of the spectrum was the polished pop of “Hey Porsche” which was so cheesy it came served with a side of Ritz crackers. Although Noisey's Drew Millard begs to differ.)

Music aside, Nelly’s most famous for putting St. Louis on the map (and for wearing a Band-Aid on his cheek). He’s the Midwest’s ambassador for hip-hop and people love him for it, so it seemed only fitting that he should be the jumping off point for Noisey’s investigation into the city’s current music scene.

What I didn’t expect was to have our conversation reveal some sexist, yet undeniably astute observations about male-female relations. We also talked about St. Louis’ kickball scene (thriving), Jheri Curl, the similarity between country music and hip-hop, before finishing off with a discussion about me kicking Nelly in the nuts.

Noisey: You really repped Missouri and St. Louis hard from the offset. Was that natural to you?
Nelly: Repping where we were from was a no brainer for us because everyone else was putting on their cities and their areas and their regions, so that’s what we wanted to do. We felt like the music that we had was just as good, if not better, than what we were hearing at the time.

There’s a great motto on the wall behind you that says “We all we got.” What does that mean to you? “We all we got” was something that we felt definitely in the beginning because obviously we were doing different things from other artists in the city. We also found out that sticking together made everything else a lot easier. When you stick together, it’s a lot easier. It’s like the old saying, two heads are better than one, three heads is better than two, four is better than three.

I was curious about when you first started making music. Were you bored? Was it about escapism? What was the impetus?
Before I even got to the city and before the Lunatics as a whole, I used to just redo old songs or remake old videos. I was a huge NWA fan, so me and my friend would call ourselves the St. Louis NWA. I was Eazy-E and we’d redo all of these Eazy-E videos. Someone has the tape right now.

So it exists somewhere?
It exists somewhere. Somebody got it and if they pulled it up, they probably could get some money for it. Definitely from me—because I don’t know if I want anybody to see that! I dug that curl, it was fresh.

How was that curl? Are we talking about a Jheri Curl situation?
I have no idea what y’all are talking about. [Laughs.]

Clearly Jheri Curl. You’ve said in the past that songwriting is like storytelling. I was curious about how your storytelling has evolved over the years? What kind of stories were you telling back then versus things that you’re talking about now?
The thing about hip-hop is it’s a continuous story. It’s a never-ending story, it’s a story that’s recycled, it’s a story that’s taking place as we speak, it’s a story that’s already been told a couple of seconds before I tell it again. It’s just all about how it’s presented. It’s the same thing with music: there are only eight chords on a piano and there’s not a chord that hasn’t been played before, there isn’t a lyric that hasn’t been written before. There’s nothing that you can say that hasn’t been said. I think as long as people are going through certain things emotionally and are not afraid to put themselves out there, there will be people who will receive it.

I think people were surprised when you came out with that remix of Georgia Florida Line, but you’re a longstanding country fan, right?
I love all music. The thing about country is that it’s dope music. I say it all the time—country and hip-hop ain’t that far. You’re talking about the bare essence of neighborhoods, environments, and them stories being told from a genuine place. The only difference between country and R&B, when you’re singing about love, is the tempo, probably, and the instruments.

When you started making music, did you feel like the fact that were in St. Louis and not on either coast helped you create your own sound that was unique to the city?
What I did was look to see what everyone else wasn’t doing. It’s not like I created being melodic. No. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, very melodic. Arrested Development, very melodic. Do or Die, Crucial Conflict—very, very melodic. DMX was melodic. But what I did, I think, was put it in a style that was so versatile that it could go on any track. If you listen to all those people, all those people were melodic, but they only went so far with being melodic. Me, I just did it over everything. It created something.

Was there any rivalry between any of the musicians in St. Louis back in the day and did that help fuel the process?
You’ve got greed, hate, and envy in anything. You’ll always have people who feel they’re better than you, or that they should of did this, or that they should have did that. But you put the work in and you knew the moves to make. It wasn’t like we didn’t try to connect with other groups on the come up. Other groups didn’t want to get with us because we weren’t the norm. “Y’all doing them party songs or y’all going after the girls. We hard over here, this real rap.” OK! No problem. We’re going to go over here, party, and hang with these ladies. [Laughs.] And we’re going to let you all go really rap.

Well part of making music is getting the girls.
You can lose money chasing women, but you can’t lose women chasing money. I believe it.

There’s a maxim.
Some women! I’m not going to say all. I don’t know what to say in today’s society half the time. You try to be straight across the board because you don’t want to piss off nobody. What I would say is that women tend to like a man that’s pretty driven, that appears to have it under control, that wants something. Success is sexy. If somebody’s being successful you’re kind of like OK, he’s got a little swag about himself. But if you’re losing, you’re like, “Look at this guy, Jesus! His clothes all over the place!” If I wasn’t Nelly, you’d probably be like who’s this guy with this t-shirt on and his glasses.

And his cargo shorts…
Really! Indoors Nelly—with glasses on! But because it’s Nelly it’s like, now it’s kind of cool.

If your kids wanted to go into hip-hop, what would you say? Would you encourage it?
I encourage them to be inspired, to love what you do first, to understand what you do is going to make who you are. I think once they get that, whatever they choose is going to be on them because that’s their life. I can’t make anyone of them go down the path that I want them to go down. They’re going to have to make their own decisions and use their heads for themselves. You just have to be there as a parent, pick them up, and say, “Look I told you, now, if you do it again, you’re going to be on your own.” But that’s real and that’s the type of parenting that has to be more of an initiative now because of the way everything is in today’s society.

Let’s talk about your music school EI.
I partnered with a trade school by the name of Vatterott College and came up with a school called EI which is called Ex’treme Institute, but EI for short. What we do is teach kids how to be engineers, producers, mix masters, all that.

Do you ever go down there and visit these kids?
Yeah, I was just down there—I go in and talk to the kids. We hold an open seminar with them, I get a chance to rap to them, they ask questions… but you have to understand that you’re dealing with. Music is art. It’s not like we’re creating carpenters where it’s a standard and it’s a blueprint. If we get a Prince out of EI, it’s all worth it, if we get a Michael Jackson out of EI, for however long it was there, that’s worth it because those artists changed lives and they changed music and they changed culture forever. Of the 3300 graduates, everybody wants a record deal. It’s not going to happen—but hopefully you sparked the mind that will.

What do you miss when you leave St. Louis?
Just my family, my kids mostly. That’s it, really, hanging out with the guys. I’m a simple dude; I like what I like. Once I find something, I’m one of them people. Like I eat one flavor of Girl Scout Cookies: peanut butter. That’s it. I got about four boxes stacked in there. They say you don’t want no more? I say nope. I like what I like.

That being the case then, you should be able to tell me about the best restaurant in St. Louis?
The best food going to be at a family members house, first and foremost. Can’t nobody out-cook Aunt, or my Grandma Sarah. My Aunt Vicky, ain’t no playing with it. My Mom, ain’t no playing with it. Even the men in St. Louis, put them up against a lot of people, you’re down. London and Sons is a very good spot, very historic. It’s a hood wing spot.

A hood wing spot?
Yeah, so get your wing ready. Get you some hot sauce and ketchup and cheese and errthang. You want to get a six piece wing, fries, hot sauce, and ketchup. Ketchup on errthang.

On errythang? I’m dribbling a little bit.
Don’t do that!

What about outdoor activities? What’s fun to do outside in the city?
Kickball is really, really taking off. I’m serious! This kickball is serious business. You go to Bell Fountaine Park on a Sunday, you might see 3,000 people out there and these girls out there playing kickball. We’re forming a national kickball association as we speak.

Who are? You are?
Yeah, we’ve been part of that. We got it coming, so wherever you be in cities, we’ve got the National Kickball Tournament coming soon! You look like you can kick a ball!

I can actually. My legs are super strong.
I don’t know if you can do it in them Chucks, though. No, no, no—you got to get you some soles, shorty.

Yeah, this is not an appropriate outfit to be kicking any balls. Well… depends what kind of balls, I guess.
I don’t think you can wear an outfit that’s appropriate for kicking balls. Sure hate to see the guy.

[To the director] Lance do you have any more questions?
Nelly: Lance, you got any balls you want to kick? She can kick them!

Lance: I’m good Nelly, thank you!

Nelly: Don’t tell me! Tell her! I’m crossing my legs sitting next to her.

I’m not going to kick your balls. That would be rude after you’ve spent all this time talking to me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’d be a little bit painful and a long walk to the car. But thank you sweetheart, I appreciate it.

Kim is an Editor at Noisey and the host of the Made in America series - @theKTB.

Related: Find out what cities the Made in America tour is visiting and RSVP for your free ticket here

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