Nelly and producer Jason Epperson made miracles in 2000 when they with a very restrained budget managed to make "

" one of the most sold albums of the year with hits like the title track, peaking at #7 "Ride With Me" #3 and "E.I" #15. Nelly combines alot of Dirty South elements with swagger, by singing the infectious hooks and rapping with a very unique flow that perfectly matched the sound, thus being a pioneer for populizing Southern Hip Hop aswell as making it commercial enough for the charts, something that was rare for Southern Hip Hop at this point, aswell as Rap songs becoming top #10 hits hits in general. Although "Country Grammar" wasn't an exellent album by any means it ultimately sold 15 million copies. Nelly's success was a fact. Nelly's next album "

" almost sold as much and while it continued where his first album left off, it also expanded his boundary by a couple of massive hits, in particular The Neptunes produced "Hot in Herre" that spent 7 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts only to be suceeded by of his own Hip Hop ballad "Dilemma" with Kelly Rowland, a cleaver remake of Patti Labelle's 1983 hit "Love, Need and Want You". It would spend another 7 weeks as #1 aswell as the #3 hit "Air Force Ones" about Nike Shoes. In 2004 Nelly decided to release two albums simultaneously, the club friendly "

" and the more laid back "

". A few hits come up, like #4 "My Place" with Jaheim, #3 "Over and Over" with Tim McGraw and then the #1 hit "Grillz With Paul Wall, populizing tooth jewelry for the first time in a big hit, he had also previosuly had a big hit with "Shake Ya Tailfeather" peaking at #1 with Diddy and Murphy Lee for the Soundtrack of Bad Boys 2. At this time Nelly became the wealthies rapper in Hip Hop and by all those big time collaborations he had on Sweet/Suit it was apparent that he had changed from the charming southerner who sang his own hooks and still made it so well to a wealthy young man who was more interersted in having hits then earning them.

After a few years Nelly is back with a new album called "Brass Knuckles" his first in 4 years, with a title like that can we expect a tougher Nelly now?. But alot of things have changed. Hip Hop is diffrent with all those futuristic beats that is setting the trends, Jay-Z has surpassed Nelly as the richest man in Hip Hop and plenty of other southern rappers like T.I, Ludacris and Lil Wayne are up for the competition. So what is there to expect from this new album? Nelly promised more hot collaborations here, especially from Bruce Springsteen and Mariah Carey but after a closer look at the album none of them are being found, but another 19 member guest list for it's 14 tracks though. The first three singles all bombed on the charts and they're infact all terrible. Polow Da Don's attempt at making a party song with Fergie aptly titled "Party People" was so bad that I was embarrased caught listening to it. Akon's "Body On Me" sounds like the anthem to an X-rated flick, not a duet between him and girlfriend Ashanti, although the trademark hook from Akon was quite meliodic and then "Stepped On My J's" is just repetitive wih lazy production, Dupri do his best to ruin the song with his guest appearence as always. The ridicolous "Wadsyaname" that stole Kci And Jojo's "All My Life" didn't even make the final cut, which is a positive thing afterall. But if these songs are the singles choises what can we expect from the rest of the album?.

The repetitive Neptunes produced "Let It Go Mama" could've been a highlight but the forced hook ain't no southern sing-a-long thing and it ends up being annoying. The Polow Da Don produced "Lie" a song about relationship problems got the beat and the hook but the lyrics are so bad it's funny. Two more Polow songs are "One And Only" a decent love song and only song without guests and "Uced Gedit" which is the opposite with naughty lyrics from R. Kelly and Gucci Mane. On the bragadocio anthem "Hold Up" with LL Cool J and T.I, Nelly claims that his only goal is to be "young, black and rich" and that others want to be him, more like "Old, Tired and Unmotivated", the same goes for "U Ain't Him" with ex Prison guard err I mean Hustler Rick Ross. A tribute to the west coast called "LA" with Snoop Dogg (who else!) with a typical west coast beat is just weird. Isn't Nelly from St.Louis, why is he trying to please everyone?. "Long Night" with Usher is a seductive song for the ladies while "Chill" is a song about not messing with him, sounds like something that 50 Cent would come up with lyrically and by beats. "Who F Wit Me" got interesting spanish guitar riffs but the lyrics are more bragadocio. The absolute standout is "Self Esteem" With Chuck D and it's about archiving your goals against all odds. It's deep and personal, why not more like this?

Overall, 1-2 songs that are good doesn't save this album form being a fiasco. Nelly has completely abandoned the cathcy sing a long songs that makes him a star back in the early decade and he's trying way hard to apply to current trends and to please diffrent groups. There's also a little too much bragadocio here, something he should save for 50 Cent or Young Jeezy. But the biggest and most aparent problem is that the songs are simply not memorable enough. That's why Nelly brought in so many guests to fill the gap. And it seems like Nelly is hardly trying either. Maybe he's content with his current life and just see rapping as a hobby. You mustn't buy this. 1'5 stars.

man nelly made the best dirty south for somebody in st. louis man this is wack the songs with fergie, ciara, and jd are good onlyu for those club goers but that's it the rest of this cd which features snoop, ludacris, akon and his girlfriend ashanti is really bubblegum pass this one by. and the cover nelly lookas very metrosexual or on the down low.

Straight up trash, Nelly has gone to an all time low with this one, OH MY GOD, Are u kidding me??!? How the hell did thid even pass through the label. A huge dissappointment. Dont waste your money, if u got to have this, just go to Limewire and bootlegg it.

It's sad what Hip Hop became during the time when Nelly was hot and what we're seeing and hearing now are the remnants of that time in hip hop - these simple word rhyming dudes are slowly realizing they don't have much too go until realness, creativity and true Hip Hop comes back with a vengeance - the true fans know the difference and it's showing in Nelly's album sales -

That simple nursery rhyme style can only go so far -

Nelly's time is slowly fading away! Which is sad because I'm from that area, and we all love Nelly! The thing i always liked about nelly, and most of the general public. Is that his rap sort of changed the direction of rap from being serious to light/fun. I mean it was what helped him sell. That being said, times are changing, and I found nelly's sound to be still great. But cheesy at the same time! Party People was a bit too corny for me. He should not have choose fergie to rap! I mean seriously! He could have chosen alot better pop artists to sing. Body on Me was pretty decent. It wasn't too bad. Brass Knuckles was pretty slick. Self esteem has classic nelly written all over it! That was a highlight. Also liked, U ain't him and hold up! Chill falls short of being not gangsta enough for me! I needed alittle more edge to the song. Which overall, I think is nelly's down fall. he doesn't or ever really did have a hard edge when it came to rap music. Unlike Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, or Young Jeezy. This album is very comparable to Ashanti's latest release, its good because I like variety,but they need to step up their game in order to compete in today's pop market! Overall, if you love nelly or music from the early 00's then this is def. the album for you to get!