"Uh-oh" indeed. The country boy is back after enjoying massive success with the scizophrenic sing-rap style that marked his lauded debut, 'Country Grammar'.
And, of course, like many great American tales, this centres around the country naive who finds fame and fortune and discovers that he can't go home again. All the local St. Louis kids are going to hate him now 'cause he's got Gucci and Prada, lots of girls and 'pimp juice' right?
From the John Carpenter style synth outset, things don't sound too promising until Nelly slows down his hyperactive whining flow for the Prince styled sex jam, 'Pimp Juice'. Along the way track after track produced by Jason 'Jay E' Epperson segues into another and the voice of Nelly-bashing hip-hop veteran KRS-One seems to loom large cackling: "I told you so!"
KRS-One, in case you missed this, urged hip-hop fans to boycott 'Nellyville' feeling that the young upstart's rap lite represents all that's wrong with commercial hip-hop in 2002.
It'll wind the old grump up to discover that 'Nellyville', whilst sure to be consigned to the sophomore failure pile by history, does contain a clutch of quality singles.
You've already heard the Neptunes-produced 'Hot In Herre' - the album highlight - but there's more where this came from: the Patti LaBelle interpolating 'Dilemma' that features Kelly from Destiny's Child and the crotch-grabbing 'Work It' featuring new friend, Justin Timberlake.
It's a cruel world in which a Nelly sells more records than the Blastmaster KRS but what 'Nellyville' makes abundantly clear is that its creator won't be leaving a fraction of his foe's proud mark on hip-hop once the dust settles on the frantic promotion of this record.
