The ridiculed rapper Nelly believes brought entrepreneurship to hip-hop: “Why was he hated?”
Nelly is a renowned name in hip-hop and will always be known as one of the kingpins of 2000s rap music. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the emcee was one of the first artists from his city to cross into the mainstream and achieve vast amounts of success.
As the frontman of the St. Louis-based collective St. Lunatics, Nelly was a highly visible figure in his city, and the renowned local taste DJ Kut would heavily play the group on Beat FM 95.5. By independently flooding his area and engulfing states with exceptional high-octane mixtapes, before long, around the turn of the millennium, record labels were beginning to notice the traction Nelly was picking up, and in 1999, he signed with Universal Records.
At the turn of the millennium and throughout the early 2000s, Nelly was one of the most popular artists in the mainstream and was selling as many, if not more, units than MCs such as Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Cam’Ron.
Although his popularity slowly waned as the 2000s came to an end, Nelly was far from irrelevant and behind the scenes. The St Louis artist had begun many business endeavours and continued to make money throughout the 2010s.
Entrepreneurship in hip-hop is common nowadays. However, it was a long road before rap music and business began crossing paths. For the first two decades of hip-hop’s existence, the culture wasn’t seen as commercially viable. However, during a discussion with music journalist Clayton Perry, Nelly highlighted one specific and often ridiculed rapper as integral to the rise of entrepreneurship in hip-hop.
During their discussion, Nelly admitted that when he first got into the entrepreneurship side of the music industry, such as signing brand deals, seeking endorsements and building his own companies from the ground-up, he made some mistakes. Still, he believes he had a positive experience, stating, “When you’re working a business, it is only going to be as successful as the effort you put into it. Now, don’t get it twisted. It’s not like I haven’t made mistakes. But I have been fortunate enough to have done so many other things correctly that my mistakes kind of get covered up.”
The ‘Hot In Herre’ rhymer expressed that he learned a lot from the mistakes and has actually become a better businessman for it, admitting, “I’ve just been really fortunate to learn from my mistakes and being able to know what works for me and what doesn’t work for me. I like to walk that straight line. When it comes to business, I don’t really mess with anything that has me stepping outside that line. And so far, so good, basically.”
As the two discussed businesses link to hip-hop, Nelly asserted that MC Hammer was the first rapper to do many of the things we currently consider standard, such as brand deals and mutually beneficial corporate collaborations.
MC Hammer was ridiculed and heavily disrespected by the black community for being a gimmick. Still, Nelly has an entirely different view of him as a business pioneer. Opening up about the ‘Can’t Touch This’ performer, Nelly began, “I’ve done my fair share. But I look at the influence of Hammer all the time. If you look at Hammer when he first came out, everybody was dissing Hammer, saying that he was too commercial.”
Nelly then cleverly showed that many of the things MC Hammer was mocked for were pioneering, stating, “Why was he hated? Because he had a Pepsi deal. He had a cartoon. He was working on a cereal deal and all that. All the things you wish you could have today. You know what I’m saying? So those are some of the doors that I walked through to get where I’m at.”
Although MC Hammer had a huge brand and marketing impact, many would argue that Run-DMC’s Adidas collaboration was the first true crossover between hip-hop and business.