Anyone who has ever slid on a pair of brass knuckles knows how it knocks up your punching power.
So, has Nelly stepped up his rap game after naming his fifth CD Brass Knuckles?
It didn’t take listening to the entire CD to answer that question. The album’s “Party People” with Fergie and “Stepped on My J’z” featuring Ciara and Jermaine Dupri have already made the case.
But the CD gets better, and Nelly has something on there for everyone. He takes it from a jumpy L.A. joint (“LA”) with Snoop and Nate Dogg to a conscious East Coast flow with Chuck D (Public Enemy) on “Self-Esteem” that’s sure to be a hit – another classic from Nelly, even.
It comes off as a reprisal and remix of “You Gotta Believe” by Rose Royce and the Pointer Sisters off the 1976 Car Wash soundtrack. It’s full of funk and sprinkled with disco.
As always, he flirts with women and hails his appeal to them, gives something for the dance floor and the ride to the club or wherever you may be headed.
And the haters? Well, Nelly still isn’t ignoring the haters. In fact, he teamed up with the entire Lunatic fam (Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan and City Spud) on “Chill” to check haters telling them to “calm down, watch your mouth, don’t let your word get ahead of ya, we know you ain’t really built for that.”
To date, the multi-platinum three-time Grammy-winner has sold more than 30 million albums and passed the test of time, meanwhile becoming a businessman with several ventures.
And Nelly doesn’t seem be slowing down, especially in St. Louis, of course.
By 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, when Nelly’s CD dropped, 11 of them had already been sold at Vintage Vinyl in the Loop in University City, which Nelly claims as his old stomping ground.
The CD (with 14 songs on it) sells there for $12.95.
An artist and store clerk Tony Renner said the number of CDs sold by noon on its release day was a pretty good (dollar) sign.
“It did very well for a weekday morning – it’s going to blow out of here on the weekend,” Renner said.
Kim Browning said she swooped by the Loop to grab her copy that morning before they ran out. She likes radio-released “Stepped on My Jz.”
Browning said Nelly’s collabos with other artists produce very good music, and she’d love to see the buffed, pretty boy rapper work with his old-head like, L.L. Cool J.
Browning’s wish is Brass Knuckles’ command: unbeknownst to the loyal Nelly fan and supporter, Nelly teamed up with L.L. (and rapper T.I.) on the album’s number two song, “Hold On.”
Local fan/supporter Shunta Wade, who stopped through Vintage Vinyl Tuesday morning, said she had many reasons to pick up the CD.
Of the radio-released songs, she said she likes “Stepped on My J’z” and “Body on Me,” featuring Nelly’s bombshell boo Ashanti and Akon.
“I just love this man, his music,” Wade said of Nelly.
“He one of our own, he talented, he put us on the map, he always brings the heat and he’s always giving back.”
