Nelly Net Worth

If there’s one musician that’s known throughout the music world at the start of the new millennium, it would be Nelly, an American rapper music artist. His music contained many catchy lyrics and beats that are so soothing to ears and often bring the audience to their feet. Throughout the 2000s’ his music can be heard in many entertainment places such as bars and clubs worldwide and radio stations.

What is Nelly’s Net Worth?

According to a popular English newspaper, as of 2022, Nelly has a net worth of US$40 million. The main sources of Nelly’s net worth came from tours and music albums and partially from sponsorships and TV shows.

Nelly’s best-selling album to date is ‘Country Grammar’ when he began his solo career in the year 2000 with the number 1 hit ‘Rid wit Me‘ featuring his half-brother City Spud of his band ‘St. Lunatics.‘ The song sat at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for many weeks. Nelly’s first debut album, Country Grammar, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and was certified 9-times platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in 2004.

Who is Nelly?

Nelly’s real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., born on November 2, 1974, in Austin, Texas, the only child in his family. Nelly’s father, Cornell Haynes, was absent much of his childhood as he served in the US Air Force. When his parents divorced at the age of 7, he moved with his mother, Rhonda Mack, to a St. Louis County suburb in the state of Missouri.

While he was attending University City High School (a public high school in the suburb of University City), he formed a hip-hop group with his childhood friends–Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, Slo’Down, and his half-brother City Spud. They enjoyed moderate success with their album ‘Gimme What Ya Got’ among the locals and other areas of Missouri, but they couldn’t find a big break beyond that boundary. For Nelly’s best, the group came to the consensus for Nelly to pursue a solo career.

In 1999, Nelly’s music career received a big break when he was recruited by a producer of Universal Records, A&R Kevin Law, who signed a contract with Universal Music Group. Being from the Midwest, this multinational music corporation’s impression of the rapper Nelly is somewhat negative as hip hop was predominantly dominated by the East Coast and West Coast at that time. But his debut single, Country Grammar (Hot Shit), proved them wrong.

Nelly’s Journey After the New Millennium

The success of Nelly’s first solo album, Country Grammar, gained him worldwide fame. The hip-hop artist was one of the most talked about in the music industry at the beginning of the new millennium.

In 2002, Nelly released his second album, Nellyville, with two smash hit singles, ‘Hot in Herre’ and ‘Dilemma’, featuring Kelly Rowland, a former member of Destiny Child. This incredibly successful album went to sell 7.6 million copies worldwide and was certified six-times platinum by the RIAA.

In between 2004-2008, Nelly released three more albums, Sweat, Suit, and Brass Knuckles. On their debut, his third album, Sweat, and his fourth album, Suit– sold over 340,000 copies and 390,000 copies in the first week, respectively. His fifth studio album, Brass Knuckles, also experienced similar success to that of Nelly’s previous albums.

In 2010, Nelly released another album titled 5.0, many well-known artists were featured in this album, including Kelly Rowland, Chris Brown, T-Pain, and more. His lead single ‘Just a Dream‘ was certified 3-times platinum.

Nelly’s Other Professions

Nelly’s acting career had a major breakthrough when he starred in the 2005 movie The Longest Yard with famous Hollywood actors Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. Over the next decade, he has been involved in a lot of different shows, including 4 episodes of the CBS crime drama CSI: NY, 90210, his own reality show Nellyville, and the main cast of the mockumentary series Real Husbands of Hollywood.

Nelly’s Accomplishments, Relationships & Troubles

Throughout Nelly’s career as a music artist, he has won multiple awards. His highest accolades include 3 Grammy awards and 9 Billboard Music Awards. In 2009, Nelly was ranked the number 3 top artist of the 2000s’. And in 2014, Nelly was ranked as the 4th best-selling rap artist in American music history in 2014. A freelance music journalist for The Time and The Wire, Peter Shapiro labeled Nelly as ‘one of the biggest stars of the new millennium.‘

Relationships

Nelly has never been married. Although he has had many relationships, he’d only connected with them briefly, including rapper Eve, singer Kelly Rowland, and talk show host Claudia Jordan.

In 2005, he dated an American singer and actress, Ashanti, for 10 years. The two planned on getting engaged, but the relationship mysteriously ended in 2013. His second longest-term relationship to date was 7 years with a model and actress, Shantel Jackson. Two started dating in 2014 and went on for 7 years. She ended the relationship in 2021 when she discovered Nelly cheated on her.

Nelly has four children in total, but two of them are his half-sister, Jackie Donahue’s biological offspring.

Troubles

In 2005 he was arrested by the Tennessee Highway Patrol while traveling with a group on a tour bus where the officers found they had paraphernalia (equipment used to produce illicit drugs), marijuana, methamphetamine, and several handguns in Nelly’s tour bus. He was later released on bail, and a felony charge was dropped.

In 2007 in Washington state, Nelly was alleged to rape a woman. The victim reportedly said he invited her into his tour bus and raped her. He’s subsequently arrested on suspicion of rape, but he’s later released without charge as the victim refused to cooperate with the authority.

Interesting Facts about Nelly

• Nelly is also a philanthropist. He created a non-profit foundation, ‘4Sho4Kids’ to help children with developmental disabilities.
• When his half-sister was diagnosed with leukemia, she inspired him to create a campaign ‘Jes Us 4 Jackie” on the importance of bone marrow transplants and to encourage donors to help victims of leukemia. Unfortunately, the disease took his sister’s life two years later.
• He uses his influence to help and fundraise for scholarships to send children to go to university every year. The scholarship was named in honor of Michael Brown who was fatally shot by a police officer.
• In 2014 he dated the boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s ex-fiancée, Shantel Jackson.
• In 2022, he accidentally uploaded an adult video of himself on his Instagram showing a woman giving him oral sex.
• Nelly used to be a vegetarian.
• Nelly lived in Spain with his father until he was 3 years old.
• Nelly’s debut album ‘Country Grammar’ was certified 9-times platinum and certified 13-times platinum worldwide.
• He played in the Pokerstars European Poker Tour and Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure

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