Nelly is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, investor, and occasional actor from St. Louis, Missouri. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about him!
1.His real name is Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr.
2. He was born on November 2, 1974)
3. Nelly was born in Austin, Texas, where his father was serving in the military.
4. When he was seven, his parents divorced.
5. Nelly moved with his mother from St. Louis to University City, Missouri as a teenager.
6. While still in high school, Nelly formed the St. Lunatics, a hip hop group who enjoyed local popularity with their single “Gimme What Ya Got”.
7. Nelly decided to go solo, after a major record deal failed to appear.
8. He was signed to Universal Music Group by A&R Kevin Law.
9. Law told HitQuarters that very few people at the record company liked Nelly when he was first signed, with the feedback he received from his colleagues on the rapper’s music being “extraordinarily negative”.
10. Nelly was unusual for being a rapper from the Midwest at a time when the hip-hop scenes were centered around the East Coast, West Coast and the South.
11. The label used this to their advantage by branding Nelly as a star of the Midwest, hoping to inspire pride in the people of St Louis and the surrounding region.
12. The label released his debut album Country Grammar in 2000.
13. The success of its title track as a single (#7 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 Hot Rap Tracks) led to the album debuting at number three in the Billboard 200 in the U.S.
14. In 2002, Nelly’s second album Nellyville was released, debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Music Albums.
15. Its lead single “Hot in Herre” was a number-one hit.
16. Other singles included “Dilemma” featuring Kelly Rowland, with over 7,6 million records sold worldwide, “Work It” featuring Justin Timberlake, “Air Force Ones” featuring Murphy Lee and the St. Lunatics, “Pimp Juice”, and “#1″.
17. This album was highly successful and was certified 6x multi-platinum on June 27, 2003.
18. Hot in Herre” won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance in 2003.
19. For the Bad Boys II soundtrack album, Nelly contributed the single “Shake Ya Tailfeather” featuring Diddy and Murphy Lee. Another number-one hit, “Shake Ya Tailfeather” won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
20. On September 14, 2004, Nelly released two albums, Sweat and Suit. Suit, an R&B-oriented album, debuted at number one on the Billboard albums chart, and Sweat, a rap-oriented album, debuted at number two.
21. In the summer of 2009, Nelly made a public announcement in Las Vegas about the yet-to-be-titled album.
22. In April 2010, Nelly’s cousin Michael Johnson was murdered in Missouri, Nelly said that he delayed releasing the album because of this.
23. Guests featured on the album were, T-Pain, Chris Brown, Akon, Plies, T.I., Kelly Rowland, Birdman, DJ Khaled, Avery Storm and Diddy-Dirty Money.[28] In May 2010, Nelly confirmed that the title of the album was 5.0.
24. Just a Dream” made its first chart appearance debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 12 and peaking at number 3 in its fourth week.
25. The song also debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Digital Songs chart, selling 888,000 downloads in its first week.
26. “Just a Dream” is Nelly’s highest-charting song since his 2005 single “Grillz” and debuted at number 7 on the Billboard Rap Songs. The song entered the Canadian Hot 100 in August 2010, at number 32.
27. On December 24, 2011, Nelly released his first ever official solo mixtape, entitled O.E.MO, which stands for “On Everything MO”. The mixtape features guest appearances from T.I., 2 Chainz, Bei Maejor, St. Lunatics and more.
28. On July 4, 2012, via his Twitter, Nelly announced his seventh studio album would be titled M.O.. He also revealed that American singer Chris Brown is featured on a song titled “Marry Go Round”, taken from M.O.
29. In August 2012, Nelly became a coach on The CW Television Network’s new show The Next: Fame Is at Your Doorstep, along with Gloria Estefan, John Rich and Joe Jonas.
30. Nelly released his second mixtape, entitled Scorpio Season, on November 2, 2012.
31. In February 2013, Nelly released “Hey Porsche”, the lead single from his seventh studio album M.O.
32. The song peaked at number forty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit the top ten in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
33. In April 2013, a remix of “Cruise”, the breakthrough single of country music duo Florida Georgia Line, featuring Nelly, was released.
34. Nelly’s next single “Get Like Me” featuring Nicki Minaj and Pharrell was released on iTunes July 2, 2013.
35. As of 2015, Nelly currently stars in his own TV show Nellyville, which began airing November 2014 and finished airing its second season.
36. The series airs on BET and is about Nelly’s music and acting career and raising his four kids.
37. On August 6, 2015, Nelly premiered a new single titled “The Fix”, was released to retailers August 14, 2015 on hishe started called “RECORDS”.
38. His big movie role came in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.
39. In 2008 and 2009, Nelly appeared in episodes of the CBS crime drama CSI: NY.
40. In 2011, he made a cameo appearance on 90210. He played Officer Glen Donner in the 2014 thriller film A Fall from Grace.
41. Nelly’s rapping style has been described by Peter Shapiro as using “unforgettable hooks based on schoolyard songs, double-dutch chants, and nonsense rhymes” and has a “Missouri twang”.
42. Nelly explains his method of writing in the book How to Rap, describing how he freestyles most of the lyrics before going back over them to “make it a little tighter”, he generally writes in the studio rather than at home, he normally comes up with a chorus for a song before writing the verses,[57] and he likes to write to the music he will be rapping over.
43. Nike and Nelly agreed on a one-year deal in 2003 to release a limited-edition sneaker called the “Air Derrty”, which was a retro remake of Charles Barkley’s signature sneaker.
44. Nelly later signed a shoe deal with Reebok.
45. Nelly has done ads for Got Milk and the Ford Motor Company.
46. Nelly has played the Main Event at the 2007 World Series of Poker. He has also played The PokerStars European Poker Tour and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
47. In 2011, Nelly and Vatterott College worked together to found the Ex’treme Institute By Nelly, which is a music production school in the heart of St. Louis.
48. Nelly runs the non-profit organization 4Sho4Kids Foundation. The Jes Us 4 Jackie campaign began in March 2003 by Nelly and his sister Jackie Donahue after Donahue was diagnosed with leukemia.
49. On Friday April 10, 2015, Nelly’s tour bus was interrupted by a traffic stop because of non-conforming U.S. Department of Transportation and International Fuel Tax Association stickers and subsequently searched by Tennessee state troopers which netted methamphetamine, marijuana, over 100 ziplock bags and numerous handguns, including a gold-plated 50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol.
50. Nelly was officially booked into the Putnam County Jail, was charged with felony possession of drugs, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
51. He made bond on Saturday April 11, 2015 and was released on bail.
52. On September 14, 2016 Nelly reportedly owes more than $2.4 million in taxes.
53. So the fans started a the “SaveNelly” campaing by listening his songs many times on Spotify so that he wins money back. #savenelly!
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