Nellyville is the second studio album by American rapper Nelly; it was released
on June 25, 2002, by Universal Records. Production for the album was handled
mainly by reprising producer Jason "Jay E" Epperson, with additional production
by Kevin Law, C-Love, Waiel "Wally" Yaghnam, The Neptunes, Trackboyz, Ryan
Bowser and Just Blaze. The album was supported by six singles, including
"#1", "Hot in Herre", "Dilemma", "Air Force Ones", "Work It" and "Pimp Juice".
"Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma"; which both topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart,
for seven and ten weeks, respectively. Nellyville debuted at number one on the
US Billboard 200 chart, selling 714,000 copies in its opening week. It stayed
atop the chart for four non-consecutive weeks and went on to be certified six
times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of
over six million copies. Internationally, Nellyville peaked at
number two in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and United Kingdom.
By March 16, 2011, the album went on to sell 6,488,000 copies in the US, and is
the fourteenth best-selling rap album of all time.
Background and production Executive producers for Nellyville
include Nelly, Kevin Law and C-Love. The majority of recording was done by Steve
Eigner, who was assisted by Marc Lee. Rich Travali, assisted by Jeff
Robinette, Jamie Duncan and Dan Milazzo performed the mixing. Audio mastering
was done by Herb Powers, with A&R directed by Law and coordinated by
Jennifer Havey. Art direction was done by Sandy Brummels with Robert Sims
undertaking design and Jonathan Mannion handling photography. Road management
was executed by Keith Brent, with additional management done so by Tony
Davis, Courtney Benson and Team Lunatics. Legality was handled by
Richard Grable and Tim Mandelbaum. Several artists made an appearance on
the album, including Justin Timberlake, Kelly Rowland, Beanie Sigel, Freeway and
Dani Stevenson. Critical reception
Nellyville received generally positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from
mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 70, based
on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Wayne
Franklin of PopMatters held low expectations for the album prior to
listening to it, following Nelly's feud with rapper KRS-One, but found its music
to be "incredible". Wayne lauded the track "Air Force One", describing it as
an "unbelievable ode" to hip hop, while noting several other songs as
stand-outs. Allmusic's Jason Birchmeier gave the album three-and-a-half stars
out of five, noting "Hot in Herre", "Dilemma" and "Roc the Mic" as "three
well-calculated, standout moments". Birchmeier praised "Hot in Herre"'s
production, "Roc the Mic"'s hip hop composition and the "Dilemma"'s
interpolation of Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need and Want You". RapReviews.com's
Steve Juon gave Nellyville an 8.5 out of ten, citing the album's consistency and
production, praising "Hot in Herre" for its Midwestern drawl and "harmonious
musical flow". Giving the album a B+, Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly
praised several new additions to Nelly's vocal style, summarizing: "If you like
your rap loose and funny, Nelly's the man for you".
NME‍‍ '​‍s Dele Fadele saw Nellyville as Nelly's "reply to the haters"; Fadele
described the album as a "glossy, well-produced album of populist anthems
with a gangsta undertow" that expands his perspective of the world and
"celebrates success". Though Fadele wasn't impressed at the Justin
Timberlake featured track "Work It", calling the song a "silly pop-directed
collaboration". The A.V. Club‍‍ '​‍s Nathan Rabin praised Nellyville for
achieving similar universal appeal to Nelly's previous effort Country Grammar,
which achieved it with songs such as its self-titled track and "E.I.". Rabin
criticized Timberlake's "high-schooler doing a Bee Gees impersonation" on "Work
It", though noted the song as the only "glaring misstep" on the album. People
lauded "Hot in Herre" for its "funky go-go groove", declaring it the "perfect
summer jam", but were ambivalent towards the rest of the album's beats for being
slightly repetitive. Rolling Stone‍‍ '​‍s Rob Marriott described
Nelly as a "gifted, witty MC" with the "catchiest rhymes to ever hit the pop
charts" but wrote that Nellyville sounds "weighted down" by the commercial
pressure of having to have another multi-platinum album.
= Accolades= At the 2003 Grammy Awards, Nellyville
was nominated for Album of the Year, "Hot in Herre" for Best Male Rap Solo
Performance and "Dilemma" for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration; both songs won
their respective nominations, with Nellyville losing out to Norah Jones'
Come Away with Me. Nelly received three BET Award nominations: Best Male Hip-Hop
Artist, Best Collaboration and Video of the Year. At the American Music Awards,
Nelly was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist and the Fan's
Choice Award, with Nellyville nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album and Favorite
HipR&B Album, with Nelly winning the Fan's Choice Award. Nelly received six
awards at the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, winning the awards for Artist of
the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Hot 100 Singles Male Artist of the Year,
R&B/Hip-Hop Male Artist of the Year, Rap Artist of the Year and Rap Track of the
Year. On the 2002 Billboard year-end charts, the album was ranked third on
the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts.
Commercial performance The album debuted at number one on the
US Billboard 200 chart, selling 714,000 copies, outperforming Nelly's previous
effort Country Grammar, which debuted at number 3 selling 235,000 copies. With
the single "Hot in Herre" number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that week, Nelly
was in possession of the top spot on ten different Billboard charts. The
following two weeks of its release, Nellyville remained atop the Billboard
200, selling 447,000 and 340,000 copies, respectively, surpassing 1.5 million
copies in sales in its third week. In its fourth week, Nellyville replaced
atop the chart by Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff, which debuted with 622,000
copies. The former album was positioned at number 2 on the Billboard 200, with
its sales decreasing to 305,000 copies. In the album's fifth week, it sold
271,000 copies, dropping from number 2 to number 3, and in its sixth week sold
244,000 copies remaining at number 3. Nellville moved up to number 2 and sold
208,000 units in its seventh week of release and in its eighth week, topped
the Billboard 200, accumulating to four non-consecutive weeks atop. The album
sold 183,000 copies that week. Nellyville‍‍ '​‍s four-week number one
run and sales were, according to Billboard, largely in part to the
success of the album's singles, "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma". The former track
was number one on the Hot 100 prior to the album's release, maintaining a third
week atop the chart when Nellville made its debut. The song topped the Hot 100
for seven consecutive weeks before being replaced by its successor, "Dilemma",
which topped the chart for ten non-consecutive weeks, selling worldwide
over 7,6 million copies. On June 25, 2002, Nellyville was certified six times
platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of
six million copies. On March 16, 2011, the album went on to sell 6,488,000
copies in the United States, becoming the fourteenth best-selling rap album of
all time. Nellyville debuted and peaked at number
2 on the UK Albums Chart on the week of July 13, 2002, remaining on the chart
for thirty-eight weeks. On July 1, 2002, the album was certified two times
platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, for shipments of 600,000
copies. On the Australian Albums Chart, it debuted and peaked at number 2 for
two weeks, staying within the top ten for sixteen non-consecutive weeks. The
album dropped off the chart after thirty-one weeks, and was certified
three times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for
shipments of 210,000 copies. Nellyville also peaked at number 2 on the New
Zealand Albums Chart, Canadian Albums Chart and German Albums Chart. It
remained on the chart in New Zealand for thirty weeks, in Canada for eighteen
weeks and in Germany for thirty-three weeks. It was certified two times and
four times platinum by Recorded Music NZ and Music Canada, respectively; the
album was certified gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Nellyville
also achieved success in several other territories, peaking within the top ten
in Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Austria
and Belgian. It was certified gold by IFPI Austria and certified platinum by
IFPI Switzerland for shipments of 15,000 and 40,000 copies, respectively. The
album reached at number 11 in Sweden and number 25 in Belgium and France. The
Swedish Recording Industry Association awarded the album a gold certification,
for shipments of over 30,000 copies. Track listing
Sample credits "Hot in Herre" contains an interpolation
of Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose". "Pimp Juice" contains samples from the
medley of The Staple Singers' "Love Comes in All Colors".
"Dilemma" contains elements of Patti LaBelle's "Love, Need and Want You".
Personnel Credits adapted from liner notes.
Charts Certifications
See also List of number-one albums of 2002
List of number-one R&B albums of 2002 Notes
References External links
Nellyville at Discogs