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Nelly was born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. on November 2, 1974 in Austin, Texas. He first hit the mainstream in the summer of 2000 with the success of Country Grammar. Heavily representing his home town of St Louis, Missouri, he was able to differentiate himself from other rap artists from the East or West Coast. Nelly easily tuned hip hop listeners in with his original Midwestern “twang”.

As a child in St. Louis, Nelly was tempted with the street lifestyle familiar to most rap artists. However after a move to a suburban area Nelly was introduced to a safer environmen Continued...

t and centered his life around playing sports, storytelling and writing rhymes. His rapping eventually led him to form the St Lunatics along with some high school friends. The group’s self produced single “Gimmie What You Got” managed to be a regional hit in 1996, yet unfortunately failed to land any record deals. An agreement was made that Nelly depart from the group in order to make an attempt as a solo artist.

His talent was noticed by Universal and was quickly signed to their label. His debut album Country Grammar was released in 2000 and landed a number one spot on the Billboard Top 40. The hit single on this album is “Ride Wit Me”. On July 18, 2001, the album was accredited 9x Platinum.

In 2001, Nelly made an album with St. Lunatics claiming that he will always be a member of the group no matter his success as a solo artist. The album is entitled Free City and its hit single “Midwest Swing”.

Nellyville was his second album to reach number one status on the Billboard 200. The first week sales of the album topped over 714 000 units and was eventually certified 6x Platinum. The number one single “Hot in Herre” maintained its status on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. “Hot in Herre” also won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance. The second single “Dilemma” (featuring Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child) immediately followed the success of the first hit reaching number one for an impressive 10 weeks. “Dilemma” won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

The controversial single “Air Force Ones” was released in 2003 and its video was refused to be played by MTV, MTV2, MuchMusic and VH1 due to its heavy product placement for the Nike sneakers. However, this did not affect his success as the Grammy winning streak continued with “Shake Ya Tailfeather” (from the Bad Boys II soundtrack) featuring P. Diddy and Murphy Lee. Nelly later released two albums Sweat and Suit in the same year, which was eventually repackaged as a double album. Suit debuted as number one and Sweat as number two on the album charts. Suit included the unexpected country inspired ballad “Over and Over” featuring Tim McGraw. In 2005, the single “Grillz” featuring Paul Well, Ali and Gipp also placed number one on the charts.