It may be time to give Nelly his flowers when it comes to the whole hip-country thing — or is it country-hop? — that he mastered long before Lil Nas X even thought about hitting the “Old Town Road.”
The St. Louis superstar nailed the formula first, crossing lanes from hip-hop onto the country charts in 2004 with “Over and Over” featuring an assist from country superstar Tim McGraw. The bigness of his genre jumping was unlike anything we’d seen before.
And it wasn’t a fluke. Nelly bringing his swag to the “Cruise” remix with country act Florida Georgia Line was huge for all involved.
