Nelly interview with BallerStatus.net

with success comes problems. For every clubgoer he has flapping her wings, he's got a critic blasting him with accusations of misogyny and raping hip-hop. Within his four-year career, Nelly has battled everyone from KRS-One to the NAACP. Still, as he tells BallerStatus.net, he's going to do as he pleases; it's your decision whether to ride with him or not.

BallerStatus.net: A common accusation against you is that you don't represent "real hip-hop." How do you respond to that?

Nelly: I never said I represent real hip-hop, I never said that. I just said I don't like it when people try to tell me what's real hip-hop. What's crazy is that, who are you to make this judgement? The first hip-hop song I ever heard was the Sugarhill Gang, and I met the Sugarhill Gang, and they like what I do (laugh). So if these are the first people who I ever seen do a rap record, who is somebody else down the line to tell me what my forefathers have already told me I'm good at? I don't think, "The hip, hop, the hippety hip hop and you don't stop" those are the tightest lyrics that we've ever heard; but I don't think we're going to say that's not hip-hop. Then you get some people who want to accuse me; I never said [I was real hip-hop]. I said of people trying to judge what's real hip-hop, these people who are really trying to say what is and what's not.