NELLY Set to Release ‘5.0’ on November 16th

Produced by Jim Jonsin and Rico Love, “Just a Dream” has been serviced to Top 40 and rhythm crossover formats. Entertainment Weekly raves: “It’s getting hot in here, part 2: NELLY makes a worthy follow-up to ‘Hot In Herre’ with his new single, ‘Just a Dream.’” NELLY is also gearing up for the release of 5.0 with a second single, the infectious club jam “Tippin’ In Da Club,” produced by Dutch, which is heating up the airwaves at urban radio.

5.0 is the eagerly awaited follow-up to NELLY’s gold-certified 2008 album, Brass Knuckles, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. The new album marks a solid return to form for the St. Louis native who recently teamed up with the Ford Motor Company to feature a tricked-out 2011 Mustang GT customized by DUB magazine on the cover of 5.0.

NELLY has been busy gearing up for the release of 5.0 since the start of 2010. In January, ESPN The Magazine enlisted him as its VIP celebrity red carpet reporter at the sixth annual NEXT Super Bowl event at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. In June, he kicked off a 10-city summer club tour sponsored by the Crown Royal Company. In July, NELLY headlined a free concert in his hometown of St. Louis in support of the city’s bid to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention. And in August, NELLY joined the St. Louis urban radio station Hot 104.1 (WHHL-FM) for a five-week run as the temporary afternoon drive-time host.

Ranked No. 3 on Billboard’s definitive list of the best-selling artists of the 2000s, NELLY has sold 30 million albums/singles in less than 10 years. He emerged in the summer of 2000 with his groundbreaking debut CD, Country Grammar, which sold an astonishing 250,000 copies in its first week of release. The landmark album spent seven weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart and sold more than 9 million copies. Two years later, NELLY’s sophomore album, Nellyville, entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1, sold more than 6 million copies, and won two Grammy awards for Best Male Rap Solo Performance (“Hot in Herre”) and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (“Dilemma,” featuring Kelly Rowland). In 2003, NELLY dropped a platinum-selling remix album called Da Derrty Versions: The Reinvention, followed by a dual set of releases in 2004 with Sweat and Suit, which collectively sold more than 4.5 million copies and earned NELLY his third Grammy award for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group (“Shake Ya Tailfeather,” featuring Murphy Lee and P. Diddy). In 2008, NELLY released his gold-certified fifth album, Brass Knuckles.

Beyond his stellar artistic output, NELLY is the CEO of his own label, Derrty Ent., owner of the popular Apple Bottoms women’s clothing line, co-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA expansion team, and founder of two non-profit organizations, 4Sho4Kids and Jes Us 4 Jackie.