Nelly: Sweat or suit?

Either way, Nelly's latest albums are making lots of noise.

By Eric R. Danton of The Hartford Courant

Rap music is just like high school: There is a social order that determines what, and who, is cool.
And like high school, there are the same stock characters roaming the halls.

Nelly, for example, is that jock in algebra class, the affable, kind of dim one with an easy grin who pays more attention to pulling off flatulent pranks he and his friends think are hilarious than he does to, say, fractions.

His music has the same feel, as if he’s coasting on his innate talent as a rapper (which is considerable) and not bothering with the extra effort that could land his albums on the honor roll.
He’s popular already, so why do anything different?

That principle mostly guides his latest releases, “Sweat” and “Suit.”

They’re distinct, stand-alone albums that offer a combined 90 minutes of new material from the man born Cornell Haynes Jr.

“Sweat” is the party record, where Nelly lets the rhymes flow in his sing-songy St. Louis yelp. “Suit” turns down the lights and cranks up the heat as Nelly veers into R&B-style seductions and songs about hardship.

Both records overflow with collaborations. Of the 24 songs between “Sweat” and “Suit,” only three feature Nelly by himself, and all of those are on “Suit.”

His guests include many of the usual suspects: Snoop Dogg and Ron Isley show up on “She Don’t Know My Name,” Pharrell Williams guests on the ultra-glossy “Play It Off” (both on “Suit”) and Christina Aguilera belts on “Tilt Ya Head Back” on “Sweat.”

There are a few less obvious choices, too: Tim McGraw helps Nelly on “Over and Over” and Stephen Marley, one of Bob’s kids, lends a Caribbean feel to “River Don’t Runnn.”

Although the single “Flap Your Wings,” from “Sweat” is getting all the attention, the best song of them all—and one that shows unexpected depth to Nelly—is “Die for You” on “Suit.”

The song starts with him on the phone teasing his 10-year-old son: “Is today your birthday? What you turn today, 19?”

Then he recalls the terror he felt when his son was born two months premature and how important the boy is to him.

This, from the same guy who asked on his last album what good fame is if you’re not scoring with models.

Maybe there’s hope yet for Mr. Popular’s studious side.