He expresses love for mama (“Luven Me”) and tells a punk kid to stay in school (“Utha Side”), however . . .
Any “higher education” acquired by Cornell Haynes Jr. is strictly from the streets. At least six tracks glamorize recreational drug use in the form of reefer, chronic, indo, shimmy cocoa, etc. A former drug dealer offers current pushers helpful hints for plying their trade (“Greed, Hate, Envy”). In typical gangsta fashion, Nelly refers to women as “b–ches” and “hos” who exist solely to satisfy his sexual pangs. Graphic language is used to brag about technique (“Thicky Thick Girl”), one-night stands (“For My,” “Steal Da Show”), unconventional sex (“E.I.,” “Ride Wit Me”), affairs with married women (“Steal Da Show,” “E.I.”) and intercourse with lesbian twins (“Country Grammar”). There’s also a lot of violent posturing and gunplay. “Steal Da Show” boasts of blowing a man’s brains out with a hollow-tipped bullet. On “Never Let ’Em C U Sweat,” a shotgun is emptied into a foe—whose child is the rapper’s next target.
How come music critics are so quick to accuse bubble-gum pop acts of being derivative clones, yet seem to find nothing formulaic about bass-heavy urban grooves full of obscene, homicidal, misogynist bluster? The latest trashy example is Nelly’s bad Grammar. Avoid it.
