Nellyville is the second studio album by American rapper Nelly. It was released on June 25, 2002, by Universal Records and Fo' Reel Entertainment. The album's production was handled by Waiel Yaghnam, the Neptunes, Jay E, Trackboyz, Ryan Bowser, and Just Blaze. Two singles from Nellyville, "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma", both topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for respectively seven and ten weeks. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the production.
Nellyville debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200, with sales of 715,000 copies in the opening week of the country. It remained at number one for four non-consecutive weeks and was eventually certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over six million equivalent-units in sales, which allowed Nellyville to become Nelly's second number-one, multi-platinum, and top-10 album in the United States following his debut album Country Grammar in 2000. As of March 16, 2011, Nellyville sold 6,488,000 copies in the United States, and it became the 14th best-selling rap album of all time. Internationally, it peaked at number two on the album charts in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.
Production
The recording of Nellyville was handled by Steve Eigner and Marc Lee. Rich Travali was assisted by Jeff Robinette, while Jamie Duncan and Dan Milazzo were performing the mixing on the album. Audio mastering was done by Herb Powers. The album's artwork was provided by Sandy Brummels, while Robert Sims handled design, and Jonathan Mannion was responsible for photography. Several artists made an appearance on the album, including Justin Timberlake, Kelly Rowland, Beanie Sigel, Freeway and Dani Stevenson.
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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 Ones", describing it as an "unbelievable ode" to hip hop, while noting several other songs as stand-outs. 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 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". 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. Rolling Stone 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. Nelly received three BET Award nominations such as Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, Best Collaboration (for "Dilemma") and Video of the Year (for "Hot in Herre"). At the 2003's American Music Awards, Nelly was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist and the Fan's Choice Award, while Nellyville was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Album and Favorite Hip/Hop/R&B Album, with Nelly winning the Fan's Choice Award. Nelly received six awards at the 2002's 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 (for "Hot in Herre"). On the 2002's Billboard year-end charts, the album was ranked third on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts. With the single, "Hot in Herre" debuting at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 that week, Nelly was in possession of the top spot on 10 different Billboard charts. In its fourth week, Nellyville replaced atop the chart by Dave Matthews Band's Busted Stuff. The former album was positioned at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with its sales decreasing to 305,000 copies. and in its sixth week, it sold 244,000 copies remaining at number 3. Nellyville reached to No. 2 and sold 210,000 units in its 7th week of release and in its 8th week, topping the Billboard 200, accumulating to 4 non-consecutive weeks atop. The album sold 185,000 copies that week. Nellyville 4-week #1 run and sales were, according to Billboard, largely in part to the success of the album's singles, "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma". On June 9, 2003, Nellyville was certified Sex-tuple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over 6 million copies in the United States of America. becoming the fourteenth best-selling rap album of all time. Nellyville was ranked as the 174th best album of all time on the Billboard Top 200 Albums of All Time.
Europe and Oceania
Nellyville debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart on the week of July 13, 2002, remaining on the chart for 40 weeks.
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| title22 = Work It (Copenhaniacs Remix)
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| title23 = Hot in Herre (Corporate Remix)
| length23 = 3:33
| title24 = Hot in Herre (Maximum Risk Remix)
| length24 = 3:51
| title25 = Hot in Herre (X-Ecutioners Remix)
| length25 = 3:58
Sample credits
- "Hot in Herre" contains an interpolation of "Bustin' Loose", as performed by Chuck Brown.
- "Pimp Juice" contains a sample from the medley of "Love Comes in All Colors", as performed by the Staple Singers.
- "Dilemma" contains elements of "Love, Need and Want You", as performed by Patti LaBelle, and samples “Misunderstanding”, as performed by D Train, “BMW", as performed by Phemza the Kween, and "R&B", as performed by Lil Swae.
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
Main artist
- Nelly
Additional musicians
- Justin Timberlake – appearance
- Kelly Rowland – appearance
- Beanie Sigel – appearance
- Freeway – appearance
- Dani Stevenson – appearance
Technical
- Steve Eigner
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! scope="row"|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
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!scope="row"|European Albums (Billboard)
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!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
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! scope="row"| Portuguese Albums (AFP)
| style="text-align:center;"|8
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Year-end chart performance for Nellyville in 2002
! Chart (2002)
! Position
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! scope="row"|Australian Albums (ARIA)
| style="text-align:center;"|11
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! scope="row"|Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| style="text-align:center;"|49
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! scope="row"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)
| style="text-align:center;"|24
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! scope="row"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)
| style="text-align:center;"|83
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! scope="row"|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
| style="text-align:center;"|9
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! scope="row"|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
| style="text-align:center;"|3
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! scope="row"|Canadian Rap Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
| style="text-align:center;"|3
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! scope="row"|Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| style="text-align:center;"|22
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! scope="row"|French Albums (SNEP)
| style="text-align:center;"|112
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! scope="row"|German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| style="text-align:center;"|22
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! scope="row"|New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| style="text-align:center;"|9
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! scope="row"|Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| style="text-align:center;"|23
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! scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
| style="text-align:center;"|22
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! scope="row"|US Billboard 200
| style="text-align:center;"|3
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! scope="row"|US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|3
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! scope="row"|Worldwide Albums (IFPI)
| style="text-align:center;"|6
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Year-end chart performance for Nellyville in 2003
! Chart (2003)
! Position
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! scope="row"|US Billboard 200
| style="text-align:center;"|24
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! scope="row"|US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)
| style="text-align:center;"|28
|}
Certifications
See also
- List of number-one albums of 2002 (U.S.)
- List of number-one R&B albums of 2002 (U.S.)