Nelly News

(3/20/02, 1 p.m. ET) -- Multiplatinum rapper Nelly is currently working on Nellyville, the follow-up to his multiplatinum set Country Grammar, which is due out June 25. The rapper has definitely put St. Louis, Missouri, on the hip-hop map and has, in addition, started many trends, including the wearing of football jerseys backwards, multiple headbands, and most recently a Band-Aid under his left eye.

When LAUNCH caught up with the rapper, he shared that the Band-Aid craze was started out of necessity following a basketball injury. "That started, like, in Miami on Memorial weekend, you know. I'm down there hooping--we down there chillin', hanging out, whatever. Pow, pop me in my eye, man, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm, like, 'Ahh, look at this fool here. You hacking.' I'm still hooping, you know--eye still swelling, still hooping, you know--so, like, I said you can't take the hood out of you. What I do--what Mom taught you to do when you get a cut or something--put a Band-Aid on it. Slam! I slammed a Band-Aid on it. I ain't thinking it's fittin' to start some no great, you know what I'm sayin', Band-Aid marathon. Johnson & Johnson, ya'll need to send me a check."

Nelly also shared that the Band-Aid also has a special meaning. "Like I said, it's just another beautiful thing that you see that you touch a lot of people, man, you know? I also wear a lot of times when I'm doing national press or something like that, to where I think my little brother City Spud might see it, you know what I'm sayin', 'cause you know he lockdown right now. So I do it to where, you know what I'm sayin', to let him know that we holding it down for him, too, also."

-- Yves Erwin Salomon, New York

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