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Catch a Falling Star: Nelly
Nelly. Photo by reeb0k2008.
Actually, if you think about it, Nelly’s six or seven year run was longer than probably should have been expected. The St. Louis rapper’s career was more or less based on a gimmick-Nelly pretty much spilt the difference between your average singer and your average rapper…and make no mistake, he was pretty average at both. The failure of his current album “Brass Knuckles” and his label’s yearlong campaign to turn shit into sunshine to no avail should put the cap on the career of one of the biggest selling pop rappers in recent history.
Make no mistake, Nelly was a superstar from the moment he appeared on the scene in the summer of 1999. At a time when Midwest rappers from Bone Thugs n Harmony to Eminem were making waves, the rapper was in the right place geographically, and his sing-song flow had massive amounts of pop (and youth) appeal. Despite the occasionally sexually explicit lyric, he was the MC that was playable to a street audience as well as the Nickelodeon set.
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Blueprint 3 Track Listing: This Could Be Good!!
Hip-hop heads have been buzzing about two major releases scheduled for the end of 2008-Kanye West’s “808’s & Heartbreak” (is it really a hip-hop album if Kanye doesn’t rap?) and Jay-Z’s Def Jam finale “Blueprint 3”, which is rumored to have been produced almost in it’s entirety by West.
An alleged tracklisting for BP3 has surfaced on the net, and although its’ validity is being questioned, there might be something to be hopeful about if this […]
Infatueighties: #83: “Love Shack”
OK-time to get the party started.
No matter who you are, no matter where you are. Pop “Love Shack” into the CD player or onto the iPod and even the paraplegics will start moving. This song screams out “good time” more than any song recorded during the decade. Ironically, “Love Shack” was the first anyone had heard from the B-52’s since the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson four years earlier. They did what anyone should do […]