He moves with a self-assured lope, and he never stops, even for a second. In the video, he’s handsome and athletic and energetic. Instead, he stays right on top of the beat, bouncing along with it, broadcasting pure exhilaration. His voice is strained and raspy, but he never sounds like he’s working. On “Country Grammar,” Nelly takes the Bone Thugs approach to harmony and he sells it like he’s a chitlin-circuit soul singer in 1965. People had sung on rap beats before Nelly his fellow Midwesterners in Bone Thugs-N-Harmony had made a careful and intricate art of it. He namechecks Beenie Man and Onyx and Hannibal Lecter and Billy The Kid. Louis to Memphis, Texas back up to Indiana.

He shouts out localities that weren’t on the mainstream-rap map - St. He dizzily weaves through the track, veering shamelessly from one itchy and relentless cadence into the next. says on “Country Grammar” works as a hook. Practically everything the 25-year-old Cornell Hayes Jr. But the voice on the song was new - an exuberant holler, strained and melodic. May I answer your Third Question like A.“Down Down Baby” worked as pop music in 1959, when the R&B group Little Anthony & The Imperials adapted it into the doo-wop hit “ Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko-Bop.” And “Down Down Baby” worked again as pop music in 2000, when it seemed to be banging out of the trunk of every third car.īefore “Country Grammar (Hot Shit),” there was absolutely nothing like “Country Grammar (Hot Shit).” Producer James “Jay E” Epperson’s computerized brass-band stutter-step and blinky synth noises were familiar from the New Orleans bounce that Cash Money Records was just then taking mainstream. Play by, my rules Boo and you gon’ stay high Say now, can you hoes come out to play now Pound niggas, what you be giving when I’m around niggaįrown niggas, talking shit when I leave the town, nigga Now nigga, come to the circus and watch me clown, nigga How nigga, ask me again and it’s going down nigga I run more game than the Bulls and Sonicsįoul niggas, running the club and busting the crowd nigga Just to navigate it, wood decorated on chrome Sipping bub, getting perved and getting dubbedĭaps and hugs, mean mugs and shoulder shrugsĪnd it’s all because accumulated enough scratch Smoking on dubs in clubs, blowing up like Cocoa Puffs Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go I’m going down down baby your street in a Range Rover Nelly’s Country Grammar video had two solid muscle cars including a 1968 Pontiac GTO and an 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass which if you follow Nelly, you know is a what he rolls on daily basis.

Nelly country grammar video