Nelly is a prominent American rapper, actor, and a businessman. His real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. who was born on November 2, 1974 in Austin, Texas. He lives with his mother in University, Missouri when his parents divorced when he was seven. Nelly started his passion in singing during his early age. He formed a group named St. Lunatics when he was in high school. Their popular single during that time was “Gimme What Ya Got”. Nelly decided to make a solo career when their group did not succeed. He signed a record deal to Universal Music Group by A&R Kevin Law. He was labeled as the “star of Midwest” since rapping centers mostly in East Coast, West and South.

According to a journalist named Peter Shapiro, the style of rapping of Nelly was primarily based on schoolyard songs, double-dutch chants, and non-sense rhymes and contains Missouri twang. Nelly usually writes his songs in the studio and he further explains his rapping style in a book called “How to Rap”. He said that he first compose the chorus of the song before its verses. The American rapper describes his songs as a jazz form to a hip-hop.

The first album of Nelly was released in 2000 entitled “Country Grammar”. The album sold 8.4 million copies in the United States. It reached the number three spot in Billboard 200 during that time. The songs in the album include “Ride With Me”, “E.I.”, and “Batter Up”. On April 27, 2004, the album was recognized by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to be nine times platinum.

In 2002, Nelly released his second album which was entitled “Nellyville”. The album got the top spot in Billboard 200. The number one single in the album was “Hot in Here” which becomes a big hit. He had collaborations with Kelly Rowland in a song entitled “Dillema”, as well as to Justin Timberlake with the song “Work It”. Like his first album, Nellyville became successful which became six times multi-platinum on June 27, 2003. His hit single “Hot in Here’ made him won in Grammy Award as Best Male Rap Solo Performance in year 2003.

The albums “Sweat” and “Suit” were both released at the same time on September 14, 2004. The album Suit was primarily a R&B album, while the Sweat album consists of rap songs. The song “Over and Over” featuring Tim McGraw became a big hit.

In year 2005, Nelly released the album Sweatsuit which is primarily composed of the songs in the album Sweat and Suit. He included three new songs. The song “Grillz” which was produced by Jermaine Dupri became a hit in the album. It sold over 5 million copies in the United States.

The next album was entitled “Brass Knuckles” which was released on September 16, 2008. His first single in the album was “Party People” where he collaborated with Fergie. The next single was produced by Jermaine Dupri was the song “Stepped on my J’z”.

Nelly released his fifth album which was entitled “5.0” on November 16, 2010. The song “Just a Dream” was released on August 17, 2010 in iTunes. The song reached the number twelve spot in US Billboard Hot 100. It is considered to be the highest charting single of Nelly since he released the song “Grillz” on 2005.

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