The hip-hop scene in the early 2000s left very little to the imagination. Everything was based mainly on sexuality following the Freaknik era. When raunchy St. Louis-based artist Nelly burst onto the scene he took that that to another level.
Nelly Credits Uncle Luke For ‘Tip Drill’ Inspiration
The video for Nelly’s 2003 hit “Tip Drill” took things to another level. The music video featured women in scantily clad outfits, twerking poolside. Nelly even infamously swiped his credit card down one of the video vixen’s butt cheeks. The video was so X-rated that it did not even air during the day.
During a recent interview on the “Drink Champs” podcast, Nelly revealed that famed Miami artist, Uncle Luke, was a major inspiration for the infamous music video.
“Shoutout to Miami because Uncle Luke, he threw one of the most famous Uncle Luke parties in St. Louis ever to be recorded… So, I was like I’mma make some videos like this,” Nelly said
“We was doing the dirty versions, the remix album where we remixed all of the songs. And that was one of the songs. ‘Tip Drill’ was the remix to ‘E.I.’ Universal wasn’t gonna shoot any videos for the remixes… When I saw ‘BET: Uncut,’ I was like, f**k it, let’s do a video for this. This won’t be expensive.”
Nelly is often viewed as the pioneer of the singing-rap style of R&B, which has been incorporated by several artists today. Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and Tory Lanez are just a few of the artists who employ that type of melody. However, Nelly revealed that he was heavily influenced by several other artists who helped him create that sound.
“I definitely think I’m one of the ones who popularized it and took it to another level,” Nelly said.
“But I’m not going to act like I ain’t a product of CeeLo Green. I’m not gonna act like I’m not a product of Arrested Development. I’m not gonna act like I’m not a product of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.”
