Early this week, Nelly made headlines with the news that he's the latest rap star to get hit with a large tax lien from the IRS. But what really got people talking about the story was a Spin post that asserted that with a few hundred million streams of "Hot In Herre," Nelly could pay off that $2 million bill. I don't know if that's actually true. Nelly sold over 20 million albums back when people were actually paying $10 a CD. If he's in money trouble now, I kind of doubt that a trickle of pennies from Spotify, which Universal still gets a cut of, would save him, even if we are in the business of saving rich entertainers who screwed up. But hey, it's a fun idea, I get why people are talking about it. But why just loop "Hot In Herre"? Nelly has a lot of songs. Here are some other ones to listen to.

Nelly Deep Album Cuts (Spotify playlist): 

1. Tho Dem Wraps
2. St. Louie
3. For My featuring Lil Wayne
4. Luven Me
5. Let Me In Now with St. Lunatics
6. Nellyville
7. Splurge
8. Oh Nelly featuring Murphy Lee
9. The Gank
10. Kings Highway
11. Playa featuring Mobb Deep and Missy Elliott
12. Grand Hang Out featuring Fat Joe, Young Tru and Remy Ma
13. Pretty Toes featuring Jazze Pha and T.I.
14. UCUD GETIT featuring Gucci Mane and R. Kelly
15. Self Esteem featuring Chuck D
16. 1000 Stacks
17. k.I.s.s. featuring Dirty Money and Murphy Lee
18. Maryland, Massachusetts

Tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Country Grammar (2000)
Track 5 from St. Lunatics' Free City (2001)
Tracks 6, 7, 8 and 9 from Nellyville (2002)
Track 10 from Da Derrty Versions: The Reinvention (2003)
Tracks 11 and 12 from Sweat (2004)
Track 13 from Suit (2004)
Tracks 14 and 15 from Brass Knuckles (2008)
Tracks 16 and 17 from 5.0 (2010)
Track 18 from M.O. (2013)

Producer Jason "Jay E" Epperson was such a big part of Nelly's phenomenal Country Grammar success that it's surprising he hasn't had a very impressive career since then. He produced a few deep cuts and minor singles on Nellyville and Sweat but basically never was heard from outside of Nelly records. It was kind of cool how an unknown rapper and producer from St. Louis just landed on this buoyant unique pop rap sound that became a cottage industry for a few years.

Even with Nelly seeming fairly disconnected from the established rap mainstream at first (aside from a pretty great early Lil Wayne feature on Country Grammar), he eventually became more collaborative, and I've really liked a lot of his later collaborations. I'm still kind of mystified with his friendship with T.I. though -- they've guested on each other's albums 6 times now, and none of those songs were hits or especially great, and you wouldn't think those guys have a lot in common. But I get the impression they actually hang out. Go figure.

Nelly is the kind of artist who started his career with such huge success that it was basically impossible to stay at that level forever. But he's carved out a niche that nobody can really take from him. There are a lot of singer-rappers now but nobody sounds like Nelly. And it was fun to skim through these records that never got any real critical examination and find some jams. I didn't realize he did a song with Dirty Money but no Diddy, it's pretty great.

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 8:53 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.