Anyone who bought Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion” I & II knows that an artist releasing two albums at the same time is rarely a good thing. Claims that they had so much good material they couldn’t trim it down to just one album invariably turn out to be wishful thinking on their part. Even Outkast’s phenomenal “Speakerboxxx / The Love Below” had its dead wood - although admittedly not much. But Andre and Big Boi can be forgiven. They at least had the decency to include both discs for the price of one.
Nelly hasn’t been quite so charitable. Taking Outkast’s concept of one disc of bass pumping tunes to make your drop-top bounce and another of sexy R&B to make the ladies quiver, St. Louis’s nicest rapper is going for maximum cash return, releasing his two moods as two completely separate albums. While on paper this makes Nelly a money-grabbing meanie who’s willing to milk his fans for all they’re worth, even a cursory listen makes it clear why he’d be reluctant to give either album away as a bonus freebie.
Opening with triumphant horns and a full choir declaring him to have the “Heart Of A Champion”, “Sweat” - billed as an album of dirrrty street and club anthems - pulls every stroke in the book to confirm Nelly’s roof-raising ghetto credentials. The Neptunes turn cowbells and a Casio keyboard into a contagious rump-shake. “American Dream” slinks to old skool G-Funk and “Tilt Ya Head Back” drips sweaty dance-floors and dirrrty sex as he bumps and grinds with Christina Aguilera to a sample of Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly”.
If not musically the most creative thing to ever have been called hip-hop, “Sweat” has more than its share of head nodding struts and hands-in-the-air moments. The monotone gangsta chic, all dead-eyed beats and bling-boasting has been done to death and here Nelly does little to try and breathe new ideas into it. But no matter how by the numbers “Na-Nana-Na”’s one finger synths are, or how production-line the claps of “Getcha Getcha” might be, Nelly’s way with a shout-out chorus and his elasticated couplets make the most tired of beats bounce like something to get excited about.
“Suit”, for those who prefer Nelly’s more soulful side, is a different proposition altogether. Unlike most collections of smooth, mid-tempo R&B, which have a tendency to play like sugar smothered, sentimental dribble, the likes of “Pretty Toes” and “Play It Off” featuring The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams are blessed with slyly addictive tunes and hefty quotas of taste and imagination. The cosy “My Place” is the closest he comes to sappy schmaltz, and with “Paradise”’s slinky come-on and the sunshine shimmy of “She Don’t Know My Name” for balance, a little sappy schmaltz, is forgivable.
All in all, it’s a deft lesson in subtle cool. And as much as Nelly likes to portray himself as everybody’s favourite fun-filled club star, “Suit” suggests that writing thoughtful, intelligent and enduring R&B is where his heart really lies.
There is still one nagging thought though. It’s a boringly predictable conclusion to come to, but had he been just a little stricter with the quality control, Nelly could have produced one phenomenal album, instead of two solid ones. That said, “Sweat” and “Suit” still bat way above the three-singles-and-a-truck-load-of-filler average, which more justifies having to shell out for both of them.
