Nelly

Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., known to the world as Nelly, emerged from St. Louis as a solo star after first honing his craft with the Midwestern hip-hop group St. Lunatics. Signed to Universal Records in 1999, he announced himself with Country Grammar (2000), a debut that topped the Billboard 200, went diamond, and pushed both “Country Grammar (Hot Shit)” and “Ride wit Me” into the Hot 100’s top ten. His follow-up, Nellyville (2002), was even bigger, yielding consecutive number-one singles in “Hot in Herre” and “Dilemma,” with the latter featuring Kelly Rowland.

Nelly’s ambition expanded with the same-day dual release of Sweat and Suit (2004), which debuted at numbers two and one respectively and sold an estimated 700,000 combined copies in their opening week. He continued through Brass Knuckles (2008), the pop-leaning 5.0 (2010), and later albums M.O. (2013) and Heartland (2021), the latter a deliberate turn toward country rap. Along the way, he also crossed into film, starring in the 2005 sports comedy The Longest Yard.

His commercial and critical standing has been substantial: three Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, and a 2014 RIAA ranking as the fourth-best-selling hip-hop artist in American music history. With 21 million albums sold domestically and a number-three placement on Billboard’s Top Artists of the Decade list for the 2000s, Nelly remains one of the defining mainstream rap voices of his era.