Why Nelly Needs to Finally Admit the Real Reason He Performed For Trump

Rapper Nelly and Ashanti’s new reality TV show, “Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together,” about their reunion and their happy lives just dropped on Peacock. But Mr. Cornell Haynes Jr. wants to spin the block about his performance during the inaugural celebrations for President Donald Trump.

Nelly got hit with backlash when he performed at Trump’s Liberty Ball in January.  He was reportedly paid $1.5 million, and he’s still got some stuff that he wants to get off his chest. He fired off a comment on The Shade Room, defending himself and Snoop Dogg, who performed at the Crypto Ball.

He blasted folks who, apparently like his wife and mother-in-law, didn’t rock with his decision to help usher in the second Trump administration. He’s been called every name in the book and went on a rant without a lot of commas, punctuation, and proofreading. He’s in his feelings that people would dare keep his comment section hot because he didn’t support former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Nelly once again reiterated that he did not support Harris or Trump in the run-up to the presidential election last November. He also doubled down that the office of the presidency trumps everything.

“It’s my respect for the office meaning any president that calls upon Nelly it would be a honor.. nothing to do with money,” he wrote.

His backstory as a “military brat” and his grand-uncle's service as a Tuskegee Airman were also referenced.  I salute the service of Nelly’s grand-uncle, and I sincerely hope that children of all colors, creeds, and stripes will be able to learn of that rich history that is under assault by this administration.

And let’s unpack his comments about Black men being the target of prosecutors.

“Some of y’all have a problem with [us] because the “prosecutor who has probably locked up more black men that we’ve helped woman of color with the white husband and white kids Did not win the election,” he wrote.

There is a real conversation about the over policing of Black men, the school-to-prison pipeline, but healing does not begin by granting free passes for unlawful behavior. A nuanced discussion is needed about alarming statistics when it comes to the prosecution of Black men, but not at the altar of keeping your name off the timeline.

And since Nelly went into his bag of defenses, there was one that made me take a deep negro, spiritual sigh. “So many of you would dump on the two black men that’s married to black women that has black children because the woman of color with the white husband and white kids. didn’t win.”

For the people in the back: A Black man being married to a Black woman isn’t some reverse uno. You don’t get to step into some foul-smelling poo and then cry out to the masses that your wife is Black as if her only purpose is to be weaponized as a shield. Stop with the cheap shot at Harris or wanting a brownie because you married a Black woman.

Since this is still the land of the free as of this writing, Nelly you can do as you please as a grown ass man. But that autonomy boomerangs the other way, and others can decide that none of this is for them. Loyalty, energy, and people’s hard-earned money aren’t owed to you.

You’re not being persecuted because of who you did or didn’t support or asked to take back what you felt was right for you. We're just asking you to own it.