Nelly as soon as picked the 2 finest rappers to have ever lived

Nelly is a famend identify in hip-hop and can all the time be often called one of many kingpins of 2000s rap music. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the emcee (actual identify Cornell Haynes) was one of many first artists from his metropolis to crossover into the mainstream and obtain huge quantities of success.

Because the frontman of the St. Louis-based collective St. Lunatics, Haynes was a extremely seen determine in his metropolis, and the famend native style DJ Kut would closely play the group on Beat FM 95.5.

By independently flooding his space and engulfing states with distinctive high-octane mixtapes, earlier than lengthy, across the flip of the millennium, report labels had been starting to note the traction Haynes was choosing up, and in 1999, he signed with Common Information.

Nelly’s distinctive and beforehand unheard nation twang was a refreshing sound, and his music was acquired extraordinarily properly throughout the US. That mentioned, the St Louis act’s 2000 debut album, Country Grammar went straight to the highest of the Billboard 200 and cemented Haynes as a rapper to be reckoned with.

The album remained atop the charts for over a month. From his rap anthem ‘Hot in Herre’ to his slow jam smash ‘Dilemma’ that includes Kelly Rowland, the St. Louis rapper has undoubtedly had his style of success, and in a 2021 interview on Fox Soul’s The Combine, the icon unveiled the 2 rappers that had the largest affect on him rising up in Missouri.

As a rapper from Center America, Nelly chosen one from the East Coast and one from the West and unveiled that Tupac Shakur and LL Cool J had been his two favorite MCs of all time. Giving a requisite, Haynes said, “Me personally, I definitely think Pac and LL, but you have to understand where I come from and how I see it.”

The ‘Flap Your Wings’ musician asserted that his selection of Shakur wanted no rationalization as he’s unanimously thought of an icon inside hip-hop. Nevertheless, he did increase on his selection of LL Cool J.

Explaining how LL’s fashion caught his consideration, Haynes detailed, “I look at LL, when I was growing up, there wasn’t a lot of dudes that was rapping at L’s time. A lot of rappers that was coming up in the early ’80s and all that, they was just mean muggers or they was kinda grouchy looking and all of this.”

He continued, “And here you got this fly dude, he was hard, but he was also getting the girls and that inspired me. And he would get on the mic, and he would match bar for bar with anybody. From that perspective, that inspired me and I was just like, ‘Yo, he’s the best.’” You possibly can take heed to Nelly’s interview on The Combine beneath.