The crowd, mostly female, repeatedly called his name before the show. Clad in blue jeans, white sleeveless t-shirt and a cap, one of the much-anticipated performers in the three-day music event finally took the stage half an hour late.

He greeted his fans, “Jakarta, what happens?” before singing some tracks such as “Boom Boom”, “Batter Up”, “Ride Wit Me”, “Air Force Ones” and “Country Grammar”.

The screams from the crowd got more deafening as soon as the intro from the familiar tune “Hot in Herre” erupted and Nelly took his top off, exposing his six-pack abs.

The hysteria got even wilder as he brought a female fan on to the stage to do a duet of Dilemma, evoking envious looks from his female fans.

The rapper, whose real name is Cornell Haynes, Jr., performed with energy and charmed the audiences with his communicative approach. Unlike his aggressive performance in the show, off-stage, Nelly is calm and laid back in person.

Born on Nov. 2, 1974, in St. Louis, Nelly showed his passion for music and formed a rap group, St. Lunatics, with his peers. After some time making music together a recording deal never came off until Nelly decided to go solo.

It was the right decision to make as he later caught the attention of the Universal record label and signed a deal with them.

His debut album Country Grammar, released in 2000, was a hit and spawned singles like “Country Grammar”, “E.I.,” “Ride wit Me,” and “Batter Up”.

It was his second album Nellyville (2002) with his lead single “Hot in Herre” which won him fame and put him in the hot-seat in the hip hop scene.

During an interview before his show in Jakarta, Nelly admitted that the song had made a big impact on him as a musician.

“I would admit after the ‘Hot in Herre’ thing, it’s a kind of extend to another level because I guess some people thought that maybe Country Grammar was the peak of what I can do. You know, one-hit wonder, so to speak,” he says.

“But after Nellyville and ‘Hot in Herre’ came out, you know, it solidified my place, but it showed people that this is Nelly, who he is, and this is what he does. It’s pretty cool.”

The success of the smash hit was followed by another chart topper “Dilemma”, a collaborative work with Kelly Rowland of American girl group Destiny’s Child.

Nelly, widely known as a rapper who embraces the pop-rap approach, kept himself in the spotlight with the release of his third and fourth albums, double-disc sets Sweat and Suit (2004), with singles like “Flap Your Wings”, “My Place” and “Over and Over”.

Four years later, he released Brass Knuckles, before launching 5.0 in 2010, which features the single “Just a Dream” and another duet with Kelly titled “Gone”.

During more than a decade in the music industry, Nelly has been working together with many musicians, including Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Tim McGraw, saying that he enjoys every moment of making music with them.

“You love them all because you don’t want to make any artist feel like you don’t appreciate them collaborating with you,” he adds.

Among a number of collaborations that he has made, Nelly points out that the Nelly-Kelly thing is the most successful.

“I think it’s just the chemistry and the part that we will be able to capture with me and her, musically.”

“I love them all, but I think if you would have to say which has probably been the most popular collaboration of Nelly’s career, it has to be me and Kelly.”

Well, what about doing a Kelly and Nelly mixtape? “We’ve thought about it. Who knows? Maybe, we’ll see what happens,” he says, smiling.

In terms of collaborating, Nelly describes himself as a “pretty much open person” and “don’t put limitations on it”.

“My fans, they allow me to be so free as long as the music is good. And they support it and that’s the beautiful thing,” he goes on.

Nelly is currently working on his seventh album, revealing that he doesn’t have a name for it yet.

Asked about any possibilities of collaborating with other musicians for the latest album, Nelly replies, “I haven’t been really collaborating for this. When I started, I was trying to do it by myself and did the collaboration only almost towards the end, so to speak. So right now I’m just recording by myself, my songs.”

Nelly discloses the difference between hip hop music in the past and nowadays, noting that the existence of social media has changed the whole industry.

“I remember when the first cover albums I did, Country Grammar and Nellyville, people went to the record store to buy the CD and lined up outside to see me. They got a chance to touch and feel the artist. You have that moment with your favorite artist,” he explains.

“You don’t get those moments no more when you can watch through YouTube. You just don’t get the one-on-one, so it makes it harder to become a star now. It’s easy to get a hit but it’s harder to become a star.”

Nelly is one of the artists who use social media such as Twitter as a means to reach out to his fans from around the globe.

After the show in Jakarta, for instance, he said in his Twitter, “Thank you Jakarta and Java Soulnation, your hospitality was incredible. Show was nuts, can’t wait to come back!”

Meantime, in tandem with his musical career, Nelly once also gave movies a try by landing a role in the comedy The Longest Yard, alongside Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, as well as playing supporting roles in several episodes of the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) TV series.

Any plans to go back to the movie business in the near future? Nelly pauses and smiles before answering the subject. “I like doing it, but I also want to do it when it feels right. I want to do the right part, the right thing for Nelly,” he says.

“And I also understand that acting takes your full concentration and it’s kind of hard to do both. You kind of go back and forth.”

He takes as an example Justin Timberlake, who has been more and more into acting over the past six or seven years, but he hasn’t done an album in that time. “So, it’s like acting engulfs you and I understand that. I’m not really for that, not just yet,” he admits, chuckling.

Besides getting busy at the studio and going on around-the-world tours, Nelly is pretty active in charity programs.

“I always plan to continue to do something for those less fortunate, no matter what it is, because I was one of those. I come from a less fortunate situation. So it is a must that people in our position show to people in less fortunate positions at least that people care. Just a little stuff,” he says.

“You know, I’m not trying to change the world overnight. But if I can show to other kids that ‘Yo, Nelly cares’. I think that’s the thing.”

It is not easy to be a star and Nelly realizes that. “People always want you to do more than what you are doing. No matter who you are.”

“You could be a president, people want you to do more. You could be Michael Jackson and they want you to do more. You could be Beyonce, people want you to do more. It doesn’t matter. You could only do what you do.”

All the bright lights of the show-biz scene have been like a dream come true for Nelly. Do you have any more dreams in your head, Nelly?

“This’ all been a dream to me. It’s cool. I’m just trying to live it as it goes. No big deal.”

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