DNF EXCLUSIVES AND NEW INTERVIEWS

DNF EXCLUSIVES AND NEW INTERVIEWS

2001 VMA INTERVIEW

Nelly & St. Lunatics (Nelly, Kyjuan, Murphy Lee)

MTV: What are you looking forward to at the VMAs?

Nelly: Hopefully it's winning.

Kyjuan: This right here. [Stands up in victory pose]

Nelly: Hopefully we can get one, either one [Best Rap Video, Best Male Video for "Ride Wit Me"]. We're not picky about which one they want to give us, if they want to give us any. Just representing, just being here. I think the atmosphere for us ... this is only our second one, so it's not like it's an everyday thing for us. We kind of look forward to award shows and stuff like that, promoting and seeing what's really going on.

Murphy Lee: I want to see the performances.

MTV: Who do you think the night's big winner is going to be?

Nelly: I think Eminem might have a big night [for "Stan"]. I think he might pretty much do the Grammy thing here. Why not, though? The dude's been doing his thing. It's all good. Hopefully Nelly can be a big winner tonight. If we could get that off, that would be even better.

MTV: In your opinion, what was the best video of the year?

Nelly: "Ride Wit Me." [Laughs] What can I say? Promotion, I need it.

MTV: Do you have a favorite VMA memory from years past?

Nelly: Last year, for us. Getting promoted, so to speak. From going and doing the outside show to the going to the inside in a big slot like that. I think it was just big for us. That just kind of set it off for big things to happen. After that, Super Bowls and everything just started jumping, man.

NELLY ON NEW VIDEOS AMD NUMBER 1

Nelly's apparently not afraid of over-saturating the market. While his debut solo album, Country Grammar, was still red hot, he went ahead and released an album with his St. Lunatics crew.

And now, with his "#1" single from the "Training Day" soundtrack on the way, he's already got another single and clip ready to go — "Let Me in Now," off St. Lunatics' Free City.

While "#1" strikes back at the haters who've criticized his sound, "Let Me in Now" finds Nelly and the St. Lunatics just having fun.

"A St. Louis pageant [is] kind of the theme for [the video]," Nelly said Wednesday in New York, in town for Thursday's MTV Video Music Awards. "We're kind of running around backstage, and you know us — backstage at a pageant, a beauty pageant anyway, you can imagine what's that like."

"We're not focused," said fellow St. Lunatic Kyjuan.

"Not at all," Nelly echoed, implying that the video will be as obsessed with sex as the song is.

Meanwhile, the multiplatinum rapper is already writing his next solo album, Nellyville, which will address the ups and down-downs of fame and fortune (see "ON THE ROAD TO NELLYVILLE BELOW").

"It's like everything in my little town, so to speak," he said. "The good and the bad that's been coming along with the success we've been achieving, although the good far outweighs the bad."

The good includes three VMA nominations for "Ride Wit Me" — Best Male Video, Best Rap Video and Viewers Choice. But Nelly expects Eminem to be the big winner.

"I think he might pretty much do the Grammy thing here. Why not, though? The dude's been doing his thing," Nelly said, adding with a laugh that he thinks "Ride Wit Me" was the best video of the year. "I mean, what can I say? Promotion — I need it."

Next time Nelly yells his signature "uh oh!" it might not be because he's trying to figure out where the party's at — it may be because he's mad.

On his new single, "#1," the first offering from the "Training Day" soundtrack, Nelly lashes out at haters, biters and people who say his music isn't "real hip-hop."

"You better watch who you talking about, running around like you know me," he warns. Nelly later goes on to blast "rappers emulating my style right to the 'down, down'" and sings, "two is not a winner, and three no one remembers" on the chorus.

Monday evening before the Source Hip-Hop Music Awards in Miami, Nelly said people forced his hand.

"No controversy at all. We ain't trying to take nothing from nobody," Nelly explained, "we just don't want nobody taking nothing from us. We got a lot of people trying to discredit us for the things we've done. '#1' is to let you know we did what we had to do — don't hate on us. We didn't step on nobody to get to where we're at."

Nelly will begin shooting the clip's video with director Steve Carr in Las Vegas on Monday. The "Training Day" soundtrack hits stores September 11, and the movie hits theaters September 21.

The "Training Day" soundtrack's track listing, according to Priority Records:

C-Murder and Trick Daddy - "Watch the Police"

Golden State Project - "Bounce With Golden State"

The LOX - "Dirty Ryders"

Snoop Dogg - "I Can't Take It"

Cypress Hill featuring Kokane - "Greed"

Tupac featuring the Outlawz - "Letters to the President"

Gang Starr - "The Squeeze"

Clipse featuring the Neptunes - "Guns N' Roses"

Krumbsnatcha featuring M.O.P. - "Wolves"

P. Diddy and David Bowie - "American Dream"

Napalm - "Crooked Cops"

Roscoe - "Training Day (In My Hood)"

Pharoahe Monch - "Fuó"

Dr. Dre - "Cops DR2"

Soldier B - "Protect Your Head"

W.C. - "Assault & Battery"

ON THE ROAD TO NELLYVILLE

Jaunting from state to state on MTV's "TRL" tour, Nelly is giving new meaning to "ride wit me." He's not just picking up girls anymore on excursions with his squad the St. Lunatics. Rap's current Billboard king is traveling with engineers, too, to make sure his career stays on point.

"I got a studio bus now, so we rolling around making hits," Nelly said Wednesday at the tour kickoff in Albany, New York.

Currently working on his second solo album, Nellyville, which he hopes to get out by Christmas, St. Louis' biggest banner bearer said he's going to give people an up-close account of how his life has changed since blowing up in the music game.

"I'm just gonna tell them how it's going for me now," Nelly said in his St. Louie drawl. "If this was my town, this is how it would be. I feel the good and I feel the bad parts right now." Although Nelly says fame's upside far outweighs the downside, he has found out there is a price to pay for fame and fortune. "Success breeds greed, hate and envy," he said. "You gotta watch out for all that. People don't understand what you go through. People gotta understand that it is a job you do and you work harder than the average nine-to-fiver, although your benefits are greater." Reaping the spoils of consistently staying in the top 20 of the Billboard 200 album chart, Nelly admits his ride has been a little dampened by all the whispers of his detractors, who chalk his sales up to luck and say his lyrics are far from complex.

"You hear a lot of that '[he says] nursery rhymes' sh--," the rapper said. "What, you mad because you ain't think of it? I turn on the videos and I hear a thousand nursery rhymes. That ain't how I did it though. I didn't just ... this is St. Louis. We on the corner like 'E.I. n---a!' We on the basketball court and hit that [jump shot] on that a-- and be like 'E.I. back up!' That's how it goes down. It ain't like I read a book or something and pick a chorus." For all the flack he may get for his lyrics, he's been getting compliments for rhyme delivery. After all, imitation is the biggest form of flattery. Although he's not the inventor of the style, Nelly has taken the sing-songy rap flow to new heights, and his popularity has caused many of his peers, like Ja Rule and Q-Tip, to further explore their crooning skills.

"When you have something that comes out and does really well," he said, gathering his thoughts, "it's not just one element to it. They take the singing element like 'That's it. That's the element.' No, that's not it. It's a whole formula. If you heard me in the booth you'd be like 'How did it come out like that?' Each track, I spit it differently so when you put it all together it comes out hot." Nelly, who is hoping his new single, "Batter Up," pushes his album to 10 million units sold ("If I get that diamond award St. Louis is gonna have the biggest block party ever!"), said he's drawing on different inspirations for his new album.

"It's a different focus," he said. "Country Grammar was made from Nelly chilling at home every day. Nelly on the block, chillin' with his partnas. Nellyville is something different. I can't make Country Grammar again. I would never try to make Country Grammar again. That's something that was done and did. Now I'm on the road constantly. I'm seeing big things. I'm eating with big people who I never thought I would see before." The 22-year-old wants to get a couple of those big dogs on his LP. "I'm working out my [solo tracks] and songs with the group," he said of the project's current status. "I got a few people in mind though. I'm definitely feeling Outkast right now. You'll definitely feel that knocker. You might catch Jagged Edge back on my sh--. I been hollerin' at my man [R.] Kelly, trying to get this Midwest thing together. I just did the "Feelin' on Your Booty" video with [Kelly] in Miami and hollered at him about it. It's looking real good right now. It's just our timing." Time is something Nelly — who said his movie "Snipes" is scheduled to come out next spring — is trying his best to manage. "Hopefully we can get that one out before November," he said about Nellyville's first single, which he hasn't picked yet. "We in the studio now but I'm not rushing it. It don't take me long anyway. I did the Country Grammar album in two weeks. It's just me getting in there and not doing nothing else. I was hungry. You a ni--a from St. Louis and you ain't doing nothing, now I got a career. I just have to maintain."

Apart from sales, rappers know they're making an impact on the game by the trends they set through their music and videos. Grand Puba, for example, put the 'hood onto Tommy Hilfiger, while the Boot Camp Clik made it cool to rock Timberlands in the summer. More recently, Jay-Z made Belvedere ("Belve") vodka a drink of choice by name-checking it on his The Dynasty: Roc la Familia 2000 album.

A Nelly idiosyncrasy — a version of the Kris Kross gimmick of wearing clothes backward — is being ciphered throughout the hip-hop community: the St. Lunatics leader has everybody wearing their sports jerseys backward.

"That came from showing love to our peoples," Nelly said of the summer trend. "My n---- Larry Hughes plays for the [Golden State] Warriors. I wore the Warrior jersey but I wanted to show love, so I put it on backward and everyone read Hughes. In the 'Country Grammar' video I had my n---- [Orlando] Pace. Usually when I turn it around, I'm showing love to whoever, like, 'This is my dirty right here, Orlando Pace from the Rams.'"

Rap and R&B videos show everyone from the Cash Money crew to Jermaine Dupri and Lil' Bow Wow extending appreciation in the same manner to athletes such as Edgerrin James, Vince Carter and Allen Iverson. Travel to a basketball court in Virginia, you're guaranteed to spot backward jerseys sporting the names of NBA All-Stars such as Tracy McGrady. Catch the subway in New York City, you'll see the names Bryant and Moss on kids' chests rather than their backs.

"It's all good," Nelly said of everyone copping his fashion sense. "That's always been a part of us. The high school me and [St. Lunatics member] Kyjuan went to, [St. Louis' ] U-City High, was a fashion high school. If you didn't have nothing to wear, you didn't go. The new Jordans come out, we'd skip school to get the new Js at the mall and make it back in time for lunch."

Nelly, who's featured on the "TRL" tour, said he's seeing another one of his trends popping off: wearing a Band-Aid on one cheek. That accessory, he admitted, was purely accidental.

"I was hoopin', got a nice little gash and had to wear a Band-Aid for three weeks," recalled Nelly, who still rocks a Band-Aid despite having healed. "People weren't used to seeing it and we started getting wild calls like, 'What up with the Band-Aid?' Now kids is wearing the sh--. I come out and see four dozen kids wearing Band-Aids and I'm like 'Oh, sh--.' That's wild, 'cause you control a life and can be an influence."

BIG LEE'S SOLO ALBUM

St. Lunatics' next batter is up.

Ali will follow in the footsteps of leadoff hitmaker Nelly by releasing a solo album.

The album was finished last month, just before the St. Louis hip-hop ensemble went out on MTV's inaugural "TRL" tour, according to Rich Travali, who has mixed all of the St. Lunatics' projects to date.

"It's more of the classic MC thing, compared to Nelly's album," Travali said. "Nelly is more melodic, though Ali does have some of that also. And all of the Lunatics are well-represented on the album."

Ali's album does not have a title or release date, according to a Universal Records spokesperson.

Jason "Jay E" Epperson, the producer behind Nelly's breakthrough LP, Country Grammar, and St. Lunatics' Free City, manned the boards for Ali's effort.

GOIN GOLD WITH THE ST. LUNATICS

Once a hip-hop artist achieves any semblance of success, expect to hear about it from his friends. More than simply brag about their platinum-selling homie, though, chances are they'll rap with him on their own album.

Within the last two months, collections from the Nelly-backed St. Lunatics and the Eminem-featured D12 have stormed into record stores. The Lunatics' Free City debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at #3 on June 13, while D12 earned the #1 slot with Devils Night two weeks later.

Many other hip-hop acts have turned the same trick, piggybacking a new act on the strength of a star, and with the success of St. Lunatics and D12, the trend shows no sign of slowing. Eminem and Nelly maintain that they just happened to blow up before their crews; both have said in countless interviews they and their crews had an understanding that whoever made it big first would return and bring the entire band up.

"In general, posse albums tend to be a lot weaker than the star's album," said Serena Kim, Vibe magazine's music editor. "It's usually about a posse of semitalented people versus a supremely talented star."

Many fans agree with Kim's evaluation. "I've been down with Eminem since he was underground, but the D12 album is garbage because they're all trying to be smart-alecks like Eminem instead of busting their own styles," said Byron Stancil, a 25-year-old hip-hop fan in Massachusetts. "Proof and the rest had their own little talents, but they're just trying to be carbon copies of Eminem, and I don't think it works."

Regardless of the talent level of groups such as D12 and St. Lunatics, there's a definite business benefit to launching acts via established stars.

"It's smart from a sales perspective," said Masta Ace, former member of the Juice Crew, an artists' collective that also included Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie, among others. In its prime, from the mid-'80s to the early '90s, the Juice Crew was one of the first hip-hop clans to create careers for each of its members.

"It's just that much easier to establish other artists when they can spin off of something that's already successful," Ace said. "It's a formula labels are chasing like crazy now. It's gotten to the point where labels won't sign an act unless they know who he's associated with. It has watered down the music."

It's sales that count in the end, however, and it's almost always easier to launch an act springboarding off of a Nelly or an Eminem than it is to break an unknown act without an endorsement from an established rapper.

It "makes sense" to operate this way, according to Dave Weiner, senior vice president of urban music and distributed labels for JCOR Entertainment, whose roster includes 8Ball & MJG. "It's definitely a common way to launch careers. Pretty much everyone who's had gold or platinum success has done this. It makes sense to the people financing the project because it piggybacks on the marketing and promotion of their previous success."

And, said Vibe's Kim, "It helps to perpetuate the hype of the artist without the artist having to commit to a whole album. Plus, if the crew is on the star's label, the star makes money from royalties."

Music seems to be the only entertainment outlet in which friends regularly put friends in talent-driven positions. Michael Jordan's high-school buddy never suited up for the Chicago Bulls, and Michael J. Fox's childhood pal didn't trip "Back to the Future" with him.

But here is Nelly's crew repping St. Louis to the max, while Eminem's dirty dozen join him on his devils nights . It's a practice Nas used to launch the Firm (a supergroup that included Foxy Brown, AZ and Nature) in 1997 and Busta Rhymes implemented to introduce his Flipmode Squad in 1998.

Some argue that, unlike in other media, these artists worked together to achieve success, with one of them achieving notoriety first.

"They all come up together," Weiner said. "I assume these guys were all in a crew in the independent-label world. You don't have that in basketball or television, which are monopolized by the majors. In the rap world, however, we've developed an independent opportunity for people to shine without the guidance, finance and help of the majors.

"The majors probably see that if Eminem and Nelly sell 8 or 9 million copies, they'll probably go platinum with a featured artist associated with one of those acts, and they can exploit that through the independent channel. If you're Michael Jordan's or Michael J. Fox's homeboy, there's no middle place to enter the industry."

Regardless of an artist's standing, quality material still has to be the end result.

"Hopefully, people take the time to make the project dope," said the producer Hi-Tek, whose musical friends and collaborators include Talib Kweli and Mos Def. "Nobody wants to go back to working for the post office or Taco Bell."

It's unlikely the St. Lunatics or D12 will be frying tacos any time soon. The Lunatics' Free City will be at #28 on next week's Billboard 200 albums chart, having sold 46,000 copies its 10th week in stores. While these sales are impressive, they don't have quite the commercial sparkle of Nelly's Country Grammar, which sold 38,000 copies the same week, after more than a year on the charts.

D12's Devils Night sold 372,000 copies its first week, far short of the 1.7 million sales rung up by Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, but enough to easily top the albums chart. Two months later, it's still in the top 10, with sales of 90,000 copies last week.

Even if the D12 and St. Lunatics albums fail to generate as much excitement or sales as their mentors, rappers will certainly continue releasing offshoot projects. Dr. Dre, for one, has benefited from the success of his protégés, who range from Snoop Dogg to Eminem.

"There's more money in the rap game now, so it's more business-oriented," Hi-Tek said. "Everybody's trying to be an entrepreneur and take advantage of their whole situation while they can."

NELLY ON GETTING SIGNED

MTV: And today you have a deal with Universal Records. How did you come to decide on a solo deal as opposed to getting the group signed?

Nelly: Well, it wasn't my idea, it was a group idea. We sat down, and I want to tell everybody it's not Nelly and The St. Lunatics, its Nelly from The St. Lunatics, 'cause I'm still in the group, always will be in the group, started in the group, and I ain't never leaving the group. But it was something that we all decided on, as far as timing, I guess my sound, just the way I like to do things... 'cause everybody's different in the group. You'll see that when the group album comes out, and when other guys, other members of the group, get a chance to do their solo projects. You'll definitely feel the difference and you'll be able to be like, "Oh, OK, Murphy Lee is different from Nelly. Big Lee is different from Murphy. Kyjuan is definitely off the rack." Everybody's different in that aspect, so I think it was just more or less the timing for me. Everybody decided, "OK, Nelly, we just gonna give you everybody's support, we just gonna get behind you, we just gonna push you through the door." Flat out. And here I am. It's definitely love, and it's the Lunatics for life.

MTV: And two guys from The St. Lunatics do production on your album.

Nelly: My man Jay E [Jason Epperson], he's been with us since '96 when we did the "Gimme What Ya Got" track that was big in St. Louis. He did that track. My little brother, City Spud, he did four tracks on that album, and Jay E did the rest of them. Except for one. My man Stevie Blast [Steve "Blast" Wills] did the "Batter Up" track. But other than that we kept everything in house, 'cause we work well together. If I feel something should be in a beat or something, if I'm feeling it -- maybe anything from a clang to a high hat, I doesn't make a difference -- they feed off of that. There are some producers that are gonna be like, "Look, look, let me do the beat. You stick to rapping." But they take well off, and they take our comments and our suggestions and they coincide with what we trying to do to, as far as hoppin' on it lyrically.

MTV: You haven't always lived in St. Louis. Tell us about your background.

Nelly: I was born in Texas. I was always moving around. It wasn't like I stayed in one spot for too long. I've been to, like, eight different schools. Four of them, I kind of got booted out a little bit. Another four came from just moving around, switching different families. [I've] always been kind of on my own, but not on my own. It helped me to rely on myself a lot. I talked to myself a lot -- you know, I ain't crazy or nothing -- but kind of like, "All right, Nelly, what was really going on?" I gotta sit back and talk to myself and reflect, 'cause I kind of feel like that's all I got. But I love my mom, my father. I got family behind me. Support, no doubt. But it's just some things you like to talk to yourself about, that you just can't [tell] other people. That's what I do.

When I moved around a lot, moving from Texas to Spain... I don't really remember too much about Spain. I probably remember one thing. Like "uno, dos," that's probably about it. But I was real young. Then we moved to St. Louis, and then my parents got divorced. I was kind of split between them families like that, and then moving around amongst friends and family, and I was just always on the go. It reflects in my music too, [in] the way I like to do different styles and come off on different songs. It's like the different moods I was in. It's like life, you know? It's the way I was feeling at a young age.

MTV: Who are some of your influences?

Nelly: We get what's hot on the East, we get what's hot on the West, we definitely get what's hot on the South and Midwest, for sure. We try to combine that, 'cause we've got a lot of rap acts in St. Louis. A lot of people take more or less to the West Coast side of things; we got some people who take to the Southern side of things, some people take to the East Coast side of things. 'Cause that's like when a group comes out in St. Louis, you don't really know what it's gonna sound like, for real, until you hear them, 'cause people take from all different sides. I listen to everybody from 2Pac, Biggie... when you say L.L., man, you know that's a big influence right there. Snoop, Goodie M.O.B., Outkast. We just pump it all right there. If it's hot, it's definitely in St. Louis. You don't know what's hot, you come to St. Louis, 'cause it's like in the middle, so you gonna hear it all. Our radio stations play it all, 'cause we don't have a lot of independent music that we're playing on our radio. Now I've got a couple of songs. We've got a couple of independent labels that's getting a few more spins now because of the success that we're having, so to speak. It's opening up our radio stations to be like, "OK, well, let's play more of our own music a little more." But we still bump a lot of stuff from other regions and other areas.

MTV: You're on a mission to put St. Louis on the map, as far as music is concerned.

Nelly: That is a mission in itself. Just bringing St. Louis to the [forefront], 'cause there's a lot of people who don't even know where St. Louis is. I'm looking on [the MTV studio] wall now, and I'm seeing a lot of [license] plates, but I don't see any Missouri plates, so it's all gravy. I'm hoping we can get the notoriety for now, but St. Louis is our foundation. No matter what we do right now, we always can fall back on the Lou', 'cause they've been loving us. They've been holding us up for so long. Any time we go down, they can give us that boost to come back up, and I think everybody needs that. Lock down home first, 'cause that's very important, we think.

It's like we're crying out for our time to shine right now. We've been doing it for a while. It ain't that, "Well, they finally got something hot." It's always been hot acts in St. Louis. It's just that people [are] going down there, taking the time to recognize and take a look and see what's really going on. We've just been building up and building up to this point to where now we're screaming with our heads cut off. We're really feeling ourselves down there in St. Louis, and I ain't talking about me. I'm talking about the whole St. Lou' right now. It's all love down there. It's "Country Grammar"-ed out down there, and I love 'em, man. I love 'em. For sure. [RealVideo]

SOURCE AWARDS PERFORMERS

Nelly, Ja Rule, P. Diddy and Mary J. Blige will take the stage at this year's Source Awards, organizers announced Monday, as will Brooklyn's M.O.P., who will be rockin' the mic with Crazy Town of all people. The August 20 ceremony will be taped at Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater and will air August 28 on UPN. Additional performers and guests will be announced in the coming weeks, an awards spokesperson said.

Although the winners in the main music categories won't be revealed until the night of the show, it was also announced on Monday that LL Cool J will be given the Lifetime Achievement Award and Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis will be crowned the Source Athlete of the Year.

Eminem and Outkast received the most nods, with five apiece, when nominees in 10 categories were announced last month . The two acts will face off for Album of the Year and Single of the Year.