I’d argue that Nelly is one of the archetypes of the hip-hop crossover smash artist. He’s done records with pop divas, boy bands, country superstars and the like. All while staying true to his roots and maintaining a high level of lyricism.
Imagine it’s 1999, 2000, and you’re an emcee from a city relatively unknown in the national hip-hop conversation (St. Louis, Missouri). God-Tier emcees are killing the game. Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg are 4-5 albums deep each. Nas is 4 albums deep. DMX is 3 deep. Cash Money, No Limit, OutKast and Three 6 Mafia are synonymous with the Southern Takeover. Eminem is a young phenom skyrocketing to the top of the charts. Not to mention Rawkus Records is uplifting the underground across the airways. You had to be at the top of your game to be thought of, let alone recognized in a sea of competition.
Nelly did just that with “Country Grammar”, the first single off his debut album of the same name. When I heard it for the first time there was nothing like it on the radio. He had an insane melody to his flow that when paired with interpolating a kids playground rhyme on the hook, made the song unstoppable. And the music video painted him as the hometown hero that he is. I remember as a teen wanting to go to a block party in St. Louis just to see if they got down like that, it looked like a great time.
In the song Nelly shouts out a few cities and states that are no strangers to speaking that country grammar, albeit some not even in the American South. In total Nelly lists 16 places: 4 states, 11 cities, and one street. The street, Kingsland Ave, is obviously not shown due to the scale of the map. The symbology is derived from the uniform colors of the St. Louis Blues, with blue states and yellow stars for cities.
States: Texas, Indiana, Alabama, Louisiana.
Cities: St. Louis, MO; Memphis, TN; Chicago, IL; Kansas City, MO; Detroit, MI (Motown); Los Angeles, CA; New York City, NY; Atlanta, GA; Savannah, GA; Jennings, MO; University City, MO.
Rap GEO 