Nelly is the official recipient of the prestigious “I Am Hip Hop Award” at the 2021 BET Hip- Hop Awards, premiering Tuesday, Oct. 5. Following behind hip-hop royalty such as Lil Wayne, Lil Kim and Master P, Nelly will receive his flowers for influencing the culture through music, fashion and films over the last three decades.
During an interview with BET, Mr. “Air Force Ones” reflects on the evolution of hip-hop and “Heartland,” his first country album, which landed in the top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums charts. Nelly says no matter what genre of music fans listen to, everyone has hip-hop roots.
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“Even though country music is their life and what they do, they grew up on Nelly,” he declares. “They grew up on Ludacris. They grew up on Ja Rule. They grew up on 50 Cent. They grew up on Eminem. They still love country music. There’s no way you got through high school in the early 2000s, late 90s, and you didn’t listen to rap music, in some form.”
Though Nelly has shifted into country music, his influence over hip-hop will forever reign. Whether the lyrics are raunchy or graphic, he describes hiphop as “the greatest genre of music ever invented.”
“Every other genre of music will be extinct before hip hop. There’s no way. Hip hop is a virus. It’s going to infect everything,” he says.
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