Have you guys been keeping up with Nelly?
This kid knows what it's like to "Ride Wit Me"
You guys, I never forgot about Nelly. Whenever I turn up a radiator, I hum “Hot In Hurr” to myself very very quietly. And then sometimes when I’m eating Cocoa Puffs, I try to figure out what the hell he was saying in “Country Grammar.” Or, really, what the hell “Country Grammar” is. I mean, my grasp of all things country is radically different from a Lunatic like Nelly. But we’re both heartland America folk, simpler, gentler people who love to talk about street cleaners. And Nelly is responsible for making me the street-smart socially-conscious man of the world I am today. Let’s go down down my memory lane in a Range Rover:
Once, on the way to someone’s birthday party in 6th grade (where, if memory serves, a hammock with 6 people in it fell on my leg and landed me in the ER), I stopped with a friend and his mom at the coolest record store around, Barnes & Noble, so that he could by a birthday present for our hostess. He really wanted to get her Country Grammar, but his mom insisted on making sure there weren’t too many bad words in it first. She scanned the CD in one of those sample-play stations (remember those? I memorized the words to the Hives’ “Hate to Say I Told You So” on one of those things. Good times.), and then recited each swear word as she heard it, for our edification: “Hot shit…hot shit…drug references…” Needless to say, we were both “hot shit” from there on out, even if he did have to end up getting a lame-ass gift card as her birthday present.
BUT HERE’S THE PART THAT’S ABOUT MUSIC AGAIN: like fine wine or the barbecue chicken pizza in my fridge, Nelly just continues to improve with age. “Country Grammar” and “Ride Wit Me” are truer and more beautiful as time goes on. There is no doubt in my mind that our generation will be remembered for the timeless melodies of these songs. That, and “Ignition (Remix).” So listen, remember, rhapsodize:
I laughed out loud. Also, Nelly’s from St. Louis, and in this picture, he’s wearing a Spider-Man shirt, so that makes us practically the same person.
So many good memories with Nelly. I remember in Grade 7, trying to use “Ride Wit Me” as an Airband song. But of course, we weren’t allowed to do so. Even with the clean version, we still weren’t allowed to use the song. What we did instead was use “Act a Fool” by Ludacris, but midway through the song, we switched it to Ride Wit Me, swearing and all. Needless to say, we got an in school suspension for a day in the library lol. Good times.