Nelly - 5.0

I get so excited for New Music Tuesday. I hope you guys do too. Something about popping open a fresh album with no expectations and an open mind. Always fun. Well today, I was intending to review the latest Queen of hip hop - Nicki Minaj, but they delayed her release to next week. Which I think is silly, because Kanye is dropping his next week too - which has already seen AMAZING reviews on the pre release. Regardless of all that - Nelly dropped his first one in a couple years. Remember Nelly? Remember the SICK 'Country Grammar' and solid follow up 'Nellyville'? Remember that guy? Well don't get that guy confused with this guy. This isn't your fathers Nelly. This is some pop/r&b replacement. 'Just A Dream' being one of the most overplayed songs on the radio right now - which I'll admit, isn't a terrible song, but the rest...uhh, yeah. I loved when Nelly would show his sick flow on tracks and maybe have a couple poppy tracks to compliment. Well, that's gone. There are tracks where he seems like he's trying to be hard, but it's almost laughable. He was recently left off the Top 10 rappers of the 2000's by BET, and he was pretty upset because of all the albums he's sold. Which yeah, the only artist who has sold more was Eminem. But Em RAPS, Nelly - you've gone pop. Remember Grillz? Yeah, we all do. That's not hip hop. Neither is this album. For an R.Kelly/Usher style album, yeah - this is pretty solid. For a rap album, sub par at best. Since I'm basing my opinion off this as a pop record, I'm going to be generally positive. But I want the old Nelly back. Hot Ish!!

TRACK LISTING:
1. I'm Number 1
2. Long Gone
3. She's So Fly
4. Just A Dream
5. Making Movies
6. Move That Body
7. 1000 Stacks
8. Gone
9. Don't It Feel Good
10. Broke
11. Liv Tonight
12. Nothing Without Her

Listen To Samples

1. Just A Dream
2. Nothing Without Her
3. Gone

FINAL RATING:
3 out of 5 stars