It’s getting cold out thurrrrrrrrrr. Might want to break out your sweaterrrrrrrrrrs.
After seeing Nelly perform at the club LOVE in Washington, D.C., I now speak Nelly. Meaning, I add extra R’s to words like a pirate. After taking a few years off to help his sister fight a battle against cancer that she didn’t end up winning, and also losing his grandmother, Nelly is back on the scene promoting his new album, Brass Knuckles. Considering the contributions the hip-hop pirate has made to Charlotte — between investing in our home team (Bobcats), previously owning a race team and having his MySpace show at our very own Neighborhood Theaterrrrrr — this Charlottean has entered Nellyville. Although, he didn’t believe me when I told him all of Charlotte was on E due to a gas shortage.
His show alternated between his new songs and his platinum hits, and included a full band, his St. Louis entourage, and lots of grills — yet there was no cook-out.
If D.C. is the nation’s capital, then LOVE is the nightlife capital. This massive club can hold 5,000 people, has hotel rooms within, and even has a detox room equipped with nurses.
Big Tigger from BET, who does weekly live broadcasts from LOVE, walked up to me and pointed at my eyes, damn near poking one of them out. “I like your eyeball,” he says. Not my eyes, but the entire ball — and only one of them apparently.
Meanwhile, a guy approached me and pointed to the enlarged freckle of a birthmark under my right eye. I used to wish it was above my lip like Cindy Crawford and could thus deem it a beauty mark instead. Well, he asked me if it was a tear tattoo. Upon closer inspection he saw it wasn’t, along with my “wtf” face, and responds with, “Oh, my bad, I thought you’d killed someone for a second.”
I took that as my cue to run away to the bathroom. There, I made a new friend — who just so happened to be Antonella Barba from American Idol. I have never seen an episode of the show, so I obviously had no idea who she was, let alone anything about her racy picture scandal she told me about.
My venture into Nellyville was just like any other night — going out, dancing, meeting new people, and having random conversations. The fact it was populated with famous people didn’t make it any more fun, nor did it make them anymore interesting. Well, the picture scandal story was pretty interesting. But, the Cason-Point is: Nelly’s new album is worth buying as it has tracks worthy of accompanying all his hits.
This article appears in Oct 14-21, 2008.
