
Cornell Iral "Nelly" Haynes Jr. (2 November 1974-) is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Born on a military base in Austin, Texas and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he joined the hip-hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and became a solo rapper in 1999. Nelly earned three Grammy Awards and nine Billboard Music Awards throughout his successful career, becoming the fourth-best-selling hip-hop artist in American history by 2014.
In January 2025, he performed at Donald Trump's inaugural "Liberty Ball," although he denied that his act was political and instead said that he had been raised to respect the presidency. He had, in 2017, previously remarked that he liked Donald Trump as a person (having name-dropped him in his 2000 song "Country Grammar") but not as a president. At the time, he also revealed that he refused to stay at Trump's hotels as a result of his negative opinion of the president.