Nelly Sweat CD

After a pair of multi-platinum records made Nelly the instant icon of St. Louis rap, the man who found the perfect balance of pop and hip-hop still had a surplus of music to let out. So with his 2004 efforts, Nelly decided to split up his new compositions into two albums--the down-and-dirty, raw club jams and the smooth, refined songs, respectively SWEAT and SUIT.

SWEAT opens with "Heart of a Champion," a powerful, sports-referencing piece of adrenaline-pumping hip-hop that samples, of all things, John Tesh's "Roundball," the ubiquitous theme music for NBC Sports. From the ballfield, Nelly moves the party to the club for most of the remaining tracks, with pure dance cuts like "Na-Nana-Na" and the crunk-flavored "Flap Your Wings." He breaks stride for a more sinister 1970s-funk vibe on "Tilt Ya Head Back," featuring a soul-stirring vocal turn from Christina Aguilera. "Playa" goes for a smooth groove, with Mobb Deep and Missy Elliott dropping by to cast a mood both dark and sweet. For SWEAT, Nelly clearly intended to create a loose, unguarded party atmosphere, and with help from his friends and the best producers in the game, he succeeds.

Nelly's decision to release his Sweatsuit project as two respective albums, Sweat and Suit -- the former clubby and insincere, the latter refined and mannered -- is somewhat of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it's nice to pick whichever side of Nelly's persona you prefer, whether in general or at any particular moment; on the other hand, the separate-album concept makes for two very one-dimensional albums that begin to sound formulaic by their respective conclusions. The thing is, Nelly has plenty of great songs here on these two albums. Quality certainly isn't an issue -- he works with a who's who of pop-rap circa 2004, from the Neptunes to Christina Aguilera to Snoop Dogg to Missy Elliott, and ends up with a wealth of certified and could-be hits. Yet by sorting them into two different categories and then lumping them together onto two separate CDs, the diversity at hand is nullified. Granted, this two-styles, two-discs approach worked well for OutKast on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (and less well, but well nonetheless, for R. Kelly on Happy People/U Saved Me), but it doesn't work so well for Nelly. His Sweatsuit recordings are diverse, for sure, but OutKast he isn't, nor is he the Pied Piper. Rather, Nelly is essentially a pop star who happens to rap, and as such, he specializes in calculated pop formulas -- namely clubby, cocky party songs (previously "Hot in Herre," presently "Flap Your Wings") and sweet, sultry love songs (previously "Dilemma," presently "My Place"). And by sorting those two formulas into respective albums, the calculation becomes overt and comes across as formulaic to discerning listeners. The key, then, is to not be a discerning listener: it's best to just let these songs play and take them for what they are -- well-done popcraft.

The Sweat disc in particular features, at least, a half-dozen songs that could be smash hits, whether on radio, on MTV, or in clubs: "Na-Nana-Na," "Flap Your Wings," "Tilt Ya Head Back," "Grand Hang Out," "Playa," and "Boy" are all first-rate party rap, on a par with anything else o

Recording information: Basement Beas Studios, St. Louis, MO; Basement Beats Studios, St. Louis, MO; Darp Studios, Atlanta, GA; Derrty Studios, L.A., CA; Derrty Studios, St. Louis, LA; Jupiter Studios, St. Louis, MO; Lion's Den Studio, Miami, FL; Platinum Sound Recording, New York, NY; REcord Plant, L.A., CA; The Lab, New York, NY; The Record Plant, LA; The Village Recorder, LA; Village Recorder, L.A., CA.

Photographers: James White ; Jonathan Mannion.

Personnel: Nelly (rap vocals); Christina Aguilera (vocals); Trife (keyboards); Jasper Cameron (vocals); Fat Joe, Jazze Pha, Ali, Missy Elliott, Mobb Deep, Murphy Lee, St. Lunatics, Stephen Marley, Big Gipp, Remy, Lil' Flip, Lincoln University Vocal Ensemble, Young Tru, Gube Thug.

Audio Mixer: Richard Travali.Rolling Stone (p.97) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "SWEAT is the street album, playing up his hip-hop clout....Proving Nelly as one of the most clever and effusive pop minds around..."
Entertainment Weekly (p.75) - "SWEAT works its way through all the hallmarks we've come to expect from Nelly records..." - Grade: B-
Vibe (p.184) - 3 discs out of 5 - "Showing off his wilder side on SWEAT, Nelly offers explicit yet infectious music..."