Nelly’s legacy is an interesting one when we’re discussing hip hop’s most successful ambassadors.
When the born-and-bred St Louis representer came out with his debut single, “Country Grammar,” in June 2020, the charts responded immediately. This was at a time when Ja Rule figured out trying to sing with that unmistakably croaky voice could earn him big bucks on the pop chart. Ludacris became the new DMX for Def Jam. Rap was on a major breakout into the pop world, after two decades of refining itself as a niche style of music.
Nelly’s hype was immediate. “Country Grammar” put him on the map by bringing a unique bounce to pop-rap that was much more radio friendly than anything the Bay Area was capable of, and denser than anything Neptunes and Timbaland were doing. Throw in the fact that no one had actually heard a rapper from St Louis that hungry to burn up the charts before. Then you’ve got the unique enunciation that St Louis rappers are known for. The “urrrs” and “hurrrs” given life with that elongated, Pimp C-style drawl to help introduce a lot of melody to these bouncy productions.
It was hit after hit from then on out. “EI and “Ride Wit Me” took Nelly ever further, introducing a great deal of melody. Unlike 50 Cent and Ja Rule, Nelly actually sounded decent as a singer and so was capable of pumping out those smooth hits as much as the party-minded jams like “Hot In Herre” and “Tip Drill”.
This style of pop rap dominated for the 00’s, but then Kanye West raised the standards of production. And a lot of rappers who couldn’t navigate these more complex, highly sophisticated arrangements started to fall behind. Nelly was most comfortable on the classic hip hop standard of verse, hook, verse, hook, verse, hook, fade. What West did with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is shift the goal posts entirely, and make that rudimentary approach to crafting a hip hop song look horribly dated.
And so Nelly faded a bit, yet he still remains one of the most successful rappers of all time. That’s no small feat, and regardless whether or not you like his brand of pop rap (nostalgic value aside), it’s hard to deny Nelly his seat when discussing history’s most important rappers, both on and off the charts.
I’m pleasantly surprised when Nelly comes bursting out of the gate, turning the Hordern Pavilion into “Club Derrty” when a hit-after-hit set list. What I was most worried about was whether or not this would be the boring medley style where rappers don’t even take their own songs seriously.
None of that, thankfully. It wasn’t a 30-seconds-of-a-hook-and-done. Nelly was giving us a full serving of songs that dominated the airwaves in the naughties. Yet him and the St Lunatics, all on stage and hyping each other up, don’t complement each other as well as they should. Nelly’s screaming into the mic means his St Louis drawl doesn’t really come across live, which cuts some of the charm these songs have on record.
Chingy, on support duties, didn’t have that problem, however. The “other” St Louis hitmaker faded faster than Nelly, but his short set just proved that it his failures were more due to a lack of funding and marketing than anything else. Despite his handful of hits not being as timeless as Nelly’s, Chingy proved that he still had a strong, adaptable flow that could eat through beats. It’s just a shame he never had a budget for good production, or star-power features. His new song, a slink strip club-esque song, would be a chart-topper if Chris Brown was on the hook.
As Nelly started to dilute his set with songs that haven’t aged as well, like “Air Force Ones,” the crowd began to lose interest as well. But that’s the thing with nostalgia-powered hip hop sets, all you need is to land on the right hit and the fans are right back with you. Unsurprisingly, “Hot in Herre” was an absolute riot.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The reviewer attended this show at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney on March 25th 2025.
Photo: Jeda Aubs
