Brass Knuckles

Additional Brass Knuckles Information

The St. Louis rapper has sold 30 million albums to date -- and he's approaching his upcoming release with renewed intensity. "When you're the champion you have to psyche yourself into thinking you're the underdog, even if people don't see you as that," Nelly confesses. "Nobody going to give you anything, you got to work hard for what you want. You got to continue to press."

Nelly makes his statement in the form of brass-tacks vocal tracks, dance floor anthems and suggestive, seductive slow jams. A master at dynamic collaborations, he's assembled a cast of all-stars to collaborate including Usher, Pharrell, Akon, Ciara, Chuck D, Snoop Dogg, Jermaine Dupri, Ashanti, Avery Storm and the St. Lunatics. "When you hear the energy change, or the tempo switches to a nice flow, it means something," he says. Nelly shows his versatility spitting rhymes with deep, percussive flow, and then switching it up to sing over soulful hooks.

Party People: The first single, "Party People," pairs him with Fergie. It's a raucous attention getter, laying the foundation for what's to come - the party is in full swing. "People wonder why I keep the clubs jamming. You can't make a club song if you don't go to the clubs. People always think I'm going out partying, but what I'm doing is seeing what the DJ is spinning. I want to hear and see what's the next thing."

Let It Go: Nelly gets dirty, Derrty style, with Pharrell on vocals over the Neptunes' crackly beats.

Self Esteem: The vibe changes with "Self Esteem," a fluid, inspirational track featuring Chuck D about staying true in the face of struggle, such as a soldier serving in an unjust war. "There are so many obstacles in life to overcome and as soon as you jump over one, there come another one. But we got to be strong and stay strong."

"My all time favorite collaboration is with Chuck D. I heard the track and did the song and I felt something was missing." Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" ran through his head. "Before Chuck even heard the song, he was like, I'll do it. That felt so good to me, that he trusted me. He knew that I wouldn't bring him no mess. That's Public Enemy, that's our CNN of hip hop."

Long Night: Nelly smoothes it out with Usher on "Long Night" -- an intricate musical cut, stacked with thick harmonies. "Sometimes you do songs with R &B artists and you do your verse, and they sing the hook but this one wasn't like that. This one, we're into the song."

Stepped on My J'z: The signature Nelly song featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara pays ode to the classic Jordan sneakers. "Shoes are a part of the hip-hop culture. I love my J's. I grew up in that era. I'm part of the reason why Jordan's don't come out on the weekday no more. I used to cut school to get a pair of the new joints"

The time away from the spotlight has been wrought with life lessons for Nelly, balancing the personal and the public, with the loss of his sister Jackie in 2005 after a long struggle with leukemia. "That's the biggest thing to ever happen in my life. That was my heart. Everybody deals with pain differently. I am not one that's going to sit in the room and sulk. No one can harm me worse than I can harm myself. It put me in a different place, but it put me in a better place. I see what is now. It's really simple. It's your family. It's your kids. It's the charitable work that you do. It's keeping it real with yourself."

While some would've thrown in the towel, Nelly never strayed far from the studio and he continued to grow his business ventures -- the Apple Bottom brand, Skybox a new St. Louis Sports Bar and part ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats -- and philanthropic work through his charities 4 Sho 4 Kids and Jes Us 4 Jackie.

Nelly is a man about his business. An award-winning artist who's up for the challenge, primed for battle .....here we go, round five with Brass Knuckles - ding ding.

What Customers Say About Brass Knuckles:

I love Nelly, or I used to love Nelly, but hate him for having me waist my money on this terrible album. Hot cover, but that's about it.

This might be the beginning of the end of Nelly as a top artist. However, you won't keep it spinning in your cd player for too long, and you definitely won't consider it his best work. Ashanti & Akon," and "Let It Go Lil' Mama" featuring Pharrell.Some of the collaborations are expected, like the Neptunes, Ashanti and T.I. I hate to admit it, because I like Nelly, but he peaked in 2004 with the release of his albums "Sweat" and "Suit." In the four years he worked on this album, people lost interest in him and I think the delay of this album ultimately hurt him.Like previous Nelly albums, this one is mostly a party record. and LL Cool J, "Body On Me" feat. "Party People" featuring Fergie is the weakest single in Nelly's history, and "One and Only" is just plain boring.I give Nelly credit for making some songs that are entertaining and enjoyable, but this album gets knocked for some really out of place songs, as mentioned.

If you like Nelly, you'll like this album. Songs you can enjoy and groove to. T.I. Some are not, like LL Cool J and Nate Dogg.While there are plenty of good tracks, this album has quite a few sub par ones as well. Production and guest appearances are solid, coming from a slew of producers and guest features. In 2008, Nelly released "Brass Knuckles." Although it was a decent album, it didn't match previous efforts.

Standout tracks include "Long Night" featuring Usher, "Hold Up" feat. "L.A." featuring Snoop Dogg & Nate Dogg seems forced and a song more fitting The Game than Nelly.

Is that his rap sort of changed the direction of rap from being serious to light/fun. Self esteem has classic nelly written all over it. Unlike Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, or Young Jeezy. I mean seriously. It wasn't too bad. I mean it was what helped him sell. He should not have choose fergie to rap. I needed alittle more edge to the song.

Which is sad because I'm from that area, and we all love Nelly. Brass Knuckles was pretty slick. That was a highlight. Which overall, I think is nelly's down fall. he doesn't or ever really did have a hard edge when it came to rap music. Also liked, U ain't him and hold up.

But cheesy at the same time. This album is very comparable to Ashanti's latest release, its good because I like variety,but they need to step up their game in order to compete in today's pop market. He could have chosen alot better pop artists to sing. The thing i always liked about nelly, and most of the general public. That being said, times are changing, and I found nelly's sound to be still great.

Body on Me was pretty decent. the album for you to get. Overall, if you love nelly or music from the early 00's then this is def. Nelly's time is slowly fading away. Party People was a bit too corny for me.

Chill falls short of being not gangsta enough for me.

I'm pretty pleased with the music although there's a couple of songs I'm not really crazy about but overall enjoy listening to it at work. This album was received very promptly. Thanks.

It's sad what Hip Hop became during the time when Nelly was hot and what we're seeing and hearing now are the remnants of that time in hip hop - these simple word rhyming dudes are slowly realizing they don't have much too go until realness, creativity and true Hip Hop comes back with a vengeance - the true fans know the difference and it's showing in Nelly's album sales -That simple nursery rhyme style can only go so far -