Nelly’s fifth album Brass Knuckles dropped last Tuesday, September 16th and well…nothing. Projected to sell less than 100,000 albums his first week, it seems our favorite Missourian has lost his mojo. Sure, sure I’m the first to admit his current Sean John Underwear campaign makes up for anything and errything he is lacking musically, but to quote The Clipse “(bird call) what happened to that boy?”
Now please don’t start singing “Hi Hater” to me. Back in the day, I was a Nelly fanatic. When, on Midwest Swing, he sang “what you think we live on the farm, Ni**a be for real!” it brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. Being from the Midwest, the most musically misguided region of the country, Nelly was a source of bragging rights. Us Midwesterners no longer had to remind people that the Jackson 5 were originally from Indiana, we had Nelly. So what happened?
Nelly has released three singles from this album and even if I was forced to choose between reciting a lyric from one of those songs and being a contestant on Flavor of Love, I couldn’t do it. And neither could you. Which brings me to the question of the day: Which multi-platinum, superstar rapper will be the next to fall off?
Now I know these are hard times in the world of record sales, but really I expect more. Longevity in hip-hop is clearly not guaranteed to anyone, and with upcoming releases from some of the genres finest including, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kanye and Ludacris, this should be an interesting question. I’m usually right, but what do you think?
Now please don’t start singing “Hi Hater” to me. Back in the day, I was a Nelly fanatic. When, on Midwest Swing, he sang “what you think we live on the farm, Ni**a be for real!” it brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. Being from the Midwest, the most musically misguided region of the country, Nelly was a source of bragging rights. Us Midwesterners no longer had to remind people that the Jackson 5 were originally from Indiana, we had Nelly. So what happened?
Nelly has released three singles from this album and even if I was forced to choose between reciting a lyric from one of those songs and being a contestant on Flavor of Love, I couldn’t do it. And neither could you. Which brings me to the question of the day: Which multi-platinum, superstar rapper will be the next to fall off?
Now I know these are hard times in the world of record sales, but really I expect more. Longevity in hip-hop is clearly not guaranteed to anyone, and with upcoming releases from some of the genres finest including, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kanye and Ludacris, this should be an interesting question. I’m usually right, but what do you think?