Playboy's 20Q: Nelly

1

[Q] Playboy: It's common among guys who suddenly reach your level of success to get a Ferrari, a huge house and an entourage. You now head a corporation. Give us a sense of your payroll and health plan.

[A] Nelly: Yeah, I'm a businessman now—Dirty Entertainment. The payroll is about $30,000 a month. That's if nothing's going on, if we don't do a show. My mom is probably the only one who gets paid who's not traveling with me now. But the payroll can range anywhere from 30 to 150 grand. It depends. We all just took physicals for our insurance plan. We got our cards. My movie production company is under Dirty Entertainment, as is Vokal, my clothing line. It's in stores now.

2

[Q] Playboy: Before you made it big, you worked at McDonald's. What would revitalize the Golden Arches?

[A] Nelly: Broadening the menu a little. I think people are getting tired of the McDonald's regular menu, especially with so many other franchises opening up. People's tastes are changing. But there will always be kids who can't wait to get a Happy Meal.

3

[Q] Playboy: If you can't have it your way, which way would you have it?

[A] Nelly: Probably Halle Berry's way.

4

[Q] Playboy: How does one dress for hip-hop success?

[A] Nelly: That's the thing: Hip-hop allows you to do it any way you see fit. Hip-hop doesn't limit you to the Wall Street type of success. It allows you to be a businessman and an artist. I like to chill out in athletic clothes, but I want to put on a suit every now and then, cleanit up a little bit. As long as you have clothes, you can handle your business. Hell, you can be dressed in your underwear and still make a lot of bills.

5

[Q] Playboy: When you're selling apparel, is it a good idea to have a song urging women to take off all their clothes?

[A] Nelly: Unfortunately, when I sang that song, we didn't have a women's line out yet. Apple Bottoms—that's the name of my ladies' line. So look for the Vokal Hot in Herre remix. I'll be singing about putting 'em on.

6

[Q] Playboy: Are you concerned with how the clothes will look on the floor?

[A] Nelly: Maybe lingerie. You're on your way to the bathroom, then you see this nice thong that used to be on her. It gets you back in the mood real fast.

7

[Q] Playboy: What makes for better mood music—Nelly or Barry White?

[A] Nelly: It depends. Barry White puts it out there for you. He sets the mood—probably not for my generation, but for my father's. When I was little, if you walked in the house and Barry was on, you'd go to your room and shut the door, you know what I'm saying? Because there was something going down you didn't need to be a part of.

8

[Q] Playboy: Is bling-bling a competitive sport?

[A] Nelly: If you have jewelry, you notice jewelry. It could be earrings, watches. You'll notice a bang-ass ring—you may not stare at it, but you notice it. The first guy who really excited me about jewelry was Jermaine Dupri. He had that big "72" necklace and it was all diamonds. I had seen it before I had a deal, and I was like, "Oh! I've got to get one of them!" It was extra inspiration for me. So when I got my first deal, I bought a big "Nelly" in diamonds on a chain. All of us take notice of what other guys have around their necks.

9

[Q] Playboy: But Jermaine Dupri is having money problems now. Aren't you supposed to put the money in the bank and not around your neck?

[A] Nelly: As long as you have more in the bank than you do around your neck, you'll be cool. The problem gets mixed up when it's the other way around. But luckily we don't have that problem.

10

[Q] Playboy: Ice-T, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, DMX, Puffy—whose career would you like to emulate?

[A] Nelly: What I'm going to do is try to take pieces. I would try to get the longevity of LL. Everybody would like Puffy's status, because even if he's not doing as well as he would like with his records, he still maintains his fame. I'd like to extend my acting career like DMX has. So for me and my generation of hip-hop, we're looking at those guys and trying to branch out.

11

[Q] Playboy: Do you drive a Hummer?

[A] Nelly: Yeah. I had the big steel one but recently got rid of it. I've got the H2 now. I liked the big one, but driving it was a workout. There's no power steering. You can't just drive that up and down the block every day, park it, take it back out. The H2 is more streetwise, but it still gives you a little Hummer feel if you're ready to go all-terrain.

12

[Q] Playboy: Can you do drive-through with that?

(concluded on page 138)Nelly(continued from page 125)

[A] Nelly: Yeah, with the new one. It's just a hassle trying to turn tight corners and stuff. A lot of times I just go over shit. It's like, "The hell with it." One time I ran over this guy's hedges and he came out—he wasn't really tripping off it, because he saw it was me. I said I was sorry, and then I gave him 100 bucks and told him, "Here, buy yourself some new bushes, man." He was cool with it.

13

[Q] Playboy: What's your favorite drink?

[A] Nelly: We drink a lot of pimp juice—Malibu rum with peach schnapps and pineapple juice. They call it pimp juice because it's real sweet and ladies like to drink it. It's easy for them. But after you've had about six and you go to stand up, you're like, "Whoa!" Between the rum and the schnapps, it kind of sneaks up on you. It's real good.

14

[Q] Playboy: Xzibit, Outkast, Ludacris, Fabolous. Ever thought about giving these guys a dictionary?

[A] Nelly: It's all about being original. It's about putting your mark on it and making it something of your own. When we spelled Vokal, of course we took it off the word vocal, but we thought, Vo-kal—just let the clothes speak for themselves.

15

[Q] Playboy: East Coast versus West Coast. If you had to shoot somebody, who'd it be?

[A] Nelly: Right now probably Rams coach Mike Martz for putting Kurt Warner back in the game. Me and a host of others in St. Louis would line up.

16

[Q] Playboy: Has anyone ever said, "Whoa, Nelly" and meant it?

[A] Nelly: Yeah, I've had quite a few people say, "Whoa, Nelly." Usually girls.

17

[Q] Playboy: You've said you like it doggy style. Whose head would you most like to see the back of?

[A] Nelly: Halle's. Who else? Although J. Lo is engaged, the back of her head would look very nice. Actually, I doubt I would see the back of her head, because I'd be looking down too much.

18

[Q] Playboy: Women say they like lovers, not fighters. What do you think?

[A] Nelly: I think they really like a combination. I don't think women like a man who's unmanly, so to speak. I consider myself both, so I guess if they're messing with me, they get a lover and a fighter.

19

[Q] Playboy: How can you tell when a guy is lying about his sex life?

[A] Nelly: Nine times out of 10, the guy who raves on a lot isn't doing it like he says. Because if he is, he doesn't have time to talk about it too much.

20

[Q] Playboy: Why will a guy hook up with a random skank even if he has something nice at home?

[A] Nelly: I watch a lot of the Discovery Channel—animals in the jungle, stuff like that. The lion spreads his seed endlessly in different territories. Man is the only species that really narrows it down and says, "You must be with one." Why would we have millions of sperm for just one partner? It's a willingness to be devoted. When we do that, we're showing our commitment to the female. It's more mental than physical. Otherwise, I think a man would just run wild in a world without diseases. A world without diseases would be heaven for men. They just get that urge. They don't mean anything by it. It's just that they get on, they let it roll. It's a hard life.