Nelly Addresses “Washed Up” & “Career’s Over” Critics

Grammy-winning rapper Nelly has stepped forward to address critics who claim his career is over and he no longer has relevancy in hip-hop.

Despite criticism, Nelly said he does not lose his cool over other’s opinions.

“I think it’s real hot that the two singles I have out right now have been doing unbelievably well,” Nelly said in an interview. “‘Just a Dream,’ obviously, almost 2 million now and we’re just working on ‘Move That Body,’ you know, it’s been getting a great response…I think everything is on course. Obviously, some people are gonna have certain things to say about it. Some see it as a comeback, others still are unsure or whatever the case may be. I mean, I don’t trip off of it like that. I just try to continuously work, but, hopefully, you just want your work to speak for itself, but obviously for some reason mine don’t seem to do it sometimes.” (BET)

Nelly’s “Just A Dream” hitmaker Rico Love recently talked with SOHH about music executives doubting the St. Lunatic‘s appeal.

“This is going to end up being one of my biggest records to date and that’s saying a lot. I’m very excited because as I have been telling everybody, I did a big portion of Nelly’s 5.0 album and I have been telling a lot of people through the process that there was doubt. A lot of people in the business, and I won’t say [any] names, were telling me “Nah, why you working with Nelly? He’s over”. Those are their words, I’m pulling them out because this industry is full of a lot of bullsh*t people that are afraid to take chances and to work with artists that they believe in and that they’re fans of. They’re d*ck riders, all of these motherf*ckers.” (SOHH Guest Star)

Last month, Nelly recalled the passing of his sister in 2005 and said he contemplated quitting music.

“I lost my sister in ’05 and almost didn’t make it back,” Nelly said in an interview. “That’s a lot that people didn’t know. Even when I was going into Brass Knuckles it was just, a’ight. I lost my sister and six months later I lost my grandfather. Both of them the same way — different diagnosis but both of them was due to cancer. And we had done so much to try to find a donor for my sister. I don’t know if you ever had someone ailing from cancer in your family, but it’s some of the most disheartening things to watch people go through so much pain and not be able to do anything about it…To have so much. So much money, so much things that you can basically buy your way out of it, but this thing here you can’t get a grasp on it for nothing in the world. And I never lost anything in my life that close to me, never, ever, ever. And this is the person that took care of me.” (MTV)

A week prior, Nelly said the family members’ deaths played a role on him a few years ago.

“All through ’06 and ’07 I felt that way. I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ve never experienced death with people that close to me. The more time you spend with someone that’s when it hurts the most. If you’ve been with people for 30 years and all of sudden they’re gone, it affects you more. I did come to a point where I wanted to quit. But I never showed it on the outside. People didn’t know I was f*cked up, but that’s on me.” (VIBE)

Check out a recent Nelly interview below: