There's probably not many things that feels better to a hip hop artist than to know that they were responsible for putting their hometown city on the hip hop map. It's hard to even remember anyone who did it in the same fashion as Nelly. St. Louis was very quiet in hip hop until Nelly emerged in 2000 and not only put the city on the map, but even had rap fans nationwide speaking the city's slang because of his music. In large part his debut album Country Grammar. One of the most successful hip hop debut albums of all time. It's because that album, and his just as successful sophomore album Nellyville, that Nelly has quite the resume of classic hit records. Now as a thirteen year veteran, he still finds himself mixing it up with this new generation of rappers and still putting out music. He's back now with his seventh album M.O. Now honestly I've haven't kept up with Nelly's music lately. In fact Nellyville was the last album of his I listened to in full. So my expectations for this album were really based off of his first two albums. After listening, I think I see why I haven't been following his music lately. I wasn't feeling this album at all. I wouldn't say it's complete trash or completely wack but it definitely didn't hold my attention whatsoever. Now a few are evident. Obviously Nelly has never been known for his lyrical ability. Secondly, I never really considered any of his music to be creative or innovative. Originality yes due to his voice, but otherwise no. So I didn't expect any of that from this album. What this album sounded like to me was a desperate attempt by Nelly to gain relevance again. Trying to make the kind of music that's hot now. What he ended up doing is making an album that sounded like it would have been good in 2004. The production was very mediocre and lackluster. Nothing great at all. Since I have more negatives to point out from the album, I'll start with the very few positives. The album actually started off decent. It's quite sad that the first track, which is also the first single is the best song on here. "Get Like Me". This was the only song that had a decent production courtesy of Pharrell. It was catchy, it was simple and didn't sound like Nelly was reaching like it does on the rest of the album. Even Nicki Minaj's verse wasn't that bad. Then the next two songs we're alright as well. The first was "Give U Dat" which I thought I was gonna hate because Future is on it. But the beat kinda saved it. Then following that was the track "Rick James". He tried to go for a little concept here buy using a Rick James-like dance beat and even singing like him. It could have been done a little better but the idea was cool. Then T.I. comes in with a verse I wasn't feeling like that but it wasn't bad enough to ruin the song. Well it's after those three tracks where the album goes all over the place and the reaching starts. Time to name all the negatives. There were so many bad songs that I can't even determine which was the worst of all. They were all equally bad. The first song I'll point out is "Maryland, Massachusetts". I don't even know where the topic of this song is going but it certainly wasn't about what the song title says. But what made this song horrible was the awful repetitive hook. One of the worst I've heard this year. There were two songs that featured failed collaborators. The first was the last track "Headphones". It featured Nelly Furtado and for two people who share the same name, you would think they would put something dope together. This turns out to be one of the most cheesiest duets I've heard in a long time. There was a time when Nelly used to do good with these pop crossover duets ("Dilemma" with Kelly Rowland and "Tilt Ya Head Back" with Christina Aguilera), but this was done very poorly. The second bad collaboration was "Walk Away" which featured country music group Florida Georgia Line. Now history has shown Nelly isn't afraid to collaborate with artists like this no matter how bad it makes him look (see "Over And Over" with Tim McGraw). But this one falls short of being good as well. I don't think a song much less a collaboration like this would get over in today's hip hop. Ten years ago maybe but now, no. "100K" actually had an okay beat and a okay guest verse from 2 Chainz. But Nelly's rapping on this was terrible. This song is an example of him trying to adapt to hip hop's new sound. Rapping on good production that's popular now but still using the same singy-rap vocals he's been using for over a decade. Does quite mesh well. I feel like this should have been 2 Chainz song featuring Nelly. It probably would have been much more enjoyable instead of barely decent. "IDGAF" is this uptempo dancy beat that sounds a lot like Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines". Ironically enough, it features the same two people, T.I. and Pharrell. However I wasn't feeling it. Neither of T.I.'s guest verses on this album was good. The beat was way too happy for a song with that title. I expected something more aggressive. I should have known better knowing how Nelly does. "My Chick Better" is another case where Nelly's vocals does not mesh with today's style of production at all. Thank God for Fabolous and Wiz Khalifa dropping verses that saved the song a bit (except for that laughably terrible line from Wiz that went like "Rolex match Rolex I hit the jeweler and go buy some minutes"). I want to say this might grow on me but I doubt it will. In conclusion, this album just fails in a lot of areas. It doesn't excite and it fails to innovate. It just really seems like Nelly is trying to play catch up with today's hip hop. I give this a final grade of a D+. In the end, you can say what you want about Nelly now, but he still will go down as one of hip hop's all time great hit makers. There's no denying that. It's just now with hip hop evolving into a sound that's so much different from when he was in his prime, it's best that Nelly just hangs up the mic. At least for making albums anyway. He can continue to collaborate. I think he's done enough in hip hop to show where he stands. That's good enough. End.
Final Grade: D+
CREDITS
Executive Producer
Cornell Haynes, Jr.
Lead Artist
Cornell Haynes, Jr.
Production
Pharrell Williams
Noel Fischer
Erik Ortiz
Kevin Crowe
Kenny Bartalomei
Timothy Thomas
Theron Thomas
John McGee
Richard Butler, Jr.
Steven Goodson
Justin Franks
Karriem Mack
Collaboration
Pharrell Williams
Onika Maraj
Nayvadius Wilburn
Clifford Harris, Jr.
Gareth Daley
Tauheed Epps
Tremaine Neverson
Jonathan Jackson
Cameron Thomaz
Tyler Hubbard
Brian Kelley
Nelly Furtado
Mario Mims
Label
Republic Records
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