Nelly - M.O. (Album Review)

Release Date : September 30, 2013
Label : Republic Records

When you think about Hip-Hop in the early 2000s, Nelly is always one of the artists that should come to mind, whether you were a fan of his or not, you can't deny how big he was at the time. He sold millions of albums and remains one of biggest selling Hip-Hop artists of all time with over 20 million albums sold. Its crazy how things change right?, because after the Sweat and Suit albums his popular took a big dip. Not to mention he got boycotted for that E.I. Remix (Tip Trill) video. An although Just A Dream was a #1 hit, the 5.0 album didn't really move any units.

So now on his 7th album M.o., Nelly looks to recapture the magic he made over a decade ago. The new generation might think that Nelly is copying Flo-Ridas style, but no folks Nelly did that on Ride Wit Me featuring City Spud from the Country Grammar album in 2000. M.O. starts off with Get Like Me featuring Nicki Minaj and Pharell, it does lack the energy of past collabs they did like Flap Your Wings and Hott In Herre,  but it gets the job done as a club record. T.I. appears on two joints, the funky Rick James, where Nelly sings Rick James style and the radio friendly IDGAF, and they're both produced by Pharrell .

Then he gets inspirational on Heaven featuring Daley and Headphones featuring Nelly Furtado. Yeah the two Nellys finally collaborated, and it does has crossover appeal. U Know U Want To finds Nelly more in his comfort zone with the sing-songy flow. There are some songs that are single worthy, like the Future assisted Give U Dat but with the lack of promo for the album, it seems like the label doesn't even care to push anything. Elsewhere on M.O., My Chick Better featuring Fabolous & Wiz Khalifa is weak. Nelly decides to croon on the hook about his bitch being badder than yours, (Yo bitch bitch bad but my bitch better than yours).

Maryland, Massachusetts is straight up wack. And Trey Songz's appearance on the Justice League produced All Around the World sounds out of place, Ne-Yo would of been a perfect fit for that type of sound. The Country-Pop Walk Away  featuring Florida Georgia Line is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I said Nelly tries to re-create past hits like Over & Over featuring Tim McGraw. While the beat knocks on 100K featuring 2 Chainz,  the song average at best. Overall M.O. is a mixed bag, Nelly could of did what he does best, but he decides to force songs to reach the top of the charts.

3/5