When you're a 24 year old rapper from St. Louis - the home of comedians Red Fox and Cedric The Entertainer - the fickle world of music fans never seem to really take you as seriously as they should. The labels and media only push an image - and never the correct one.

Nelly is perhaps one of the most misunderstood artists of our generation. All too often perceived as an artist who is 'only after money' or is 'greedy', or even 'void of talent'. As a Hiphop procurator and consequential journalist it's my obligation to set the record straight on as many misconceptions as possible with in this now-popular culture. Which brings me to the opportunity to now interview my Dirty (cousin) Cornell "Nelly" Haynes.

Nelly is widely known in St. Louis for giving back to his home communities. Through his record sales, and endorsement he has successfully sponsored community events and other projects.

So, what about your charity work? People don't seem to see that side of you often "We just got back from doing a week in High schools in St. Louis where we'd do shows and help the kids.......4Sho 4 Kids is a charity I have - We all (The St. Lunatics) have our own charities - we work with homeless kids in the Lou (St. Louis), homeless kids with HIV, and poor families. These are teens with no homes and AIDs, children born addicted to crack, drug rehabilitation programs. We trying to help people out at home before we take these charities nationwide."

Do you think the world has seen the correct interpretation of Nelly? "I'd like to think so. But if people are judging me off what other people say, or what they see on T.V or in a video, without getting to know me then they shouldn't judge form that. It's all speculation and rumor; don't judge a book by it's cover and so on and so forth, yadda yadda."

I take the time to mention I had previously spoke with Ras Kass who had this to say about Nelly "I wish I had Nelly's A&R. Nelly fought to keep his style and never had to change it - instead of going to the fans, they came to him".

Nelly responded saying "We met Ras Kass a long long time ago. I got the up most respect for Dirty, he's hot." It seems I opened the flood gates to praises for Ras Kass from Nelly "That brother is TENACIOUS! You know, there's some cats that don't get the shine, but just can't be beaten when it comes to sheer talent you know?. Ras Kass is crazy with his, you know?"

Leads me to ask about all these other 'underground' cats and 'fans' who have the nerve to diss Nelly for his perceived short-comings and refuse to praise his talents and determinations. "They're all out to fatten their pockets, too. You know? It's all about how they go about doing it. I mean, I wanna ask them, what do you have to gain by talkin about me? I'm not talkin about you, I'm trying to do me. What makes you want to talk about me all the time when you're trying to do the same thing I'm doing, you know Dirty?"

We get off deep into this topic of Hiphop becoming popular music, and Nelly and myself find ourselves finishing each others thoughts "You feel me, dirty? Hiphop is popular music. When these (popular) artists are starting to fade away, who do their labels go get? Rappers and they get Hiphop beats."

I bring up the example of Britney Spears who has just lost her Pepsi sponsorship to Shakira in a matter of days. "With Britney, you know dirty? They came along she wasn't doing as good as she could have been and they go get some Hiphop beats (Courtesy of The Neptunes) and she was banging again. Now you got more Hiphop in the popular world, you know?"

This example makes me realize why Nelly worked with NSYNC and Justin Timberlake on his new album. "Hiphop is popular music, it's popular now. They (labels and fans) don't understand it though, dirty. Hiphop started getting popular music with Run DMC; feel me dirty? When they did that song with Aerosmith ("Walk This Way") that was when it was getting popular. They crossed over to rock music right there. But no one said nothing, dirty, you know? No one would have the balls to say Run isn't Hiphop. Now they want to talk about people who sell a certain amount, it's like you sell over 3 million and you're popular then, you know?"

But no one really knows how many units they're going to move, right? "That's exactly right, Dirty. No one is going to say 'Look, I only want to sell 2 thousand units, and after that take my joints off the shelves'; I have yet to meet that person."

"Anyone who says that they don't want to sell anything is a hypocrite, and I know one of the biggest in the game" KRS 1, I offer? "Exactly! KRS 1. There is no bigger hypocrite, dirty. He changes his mind every day. Remember when he said "BDP (Boogie Down Production, KRS' rap crew) are just about gettin' paid"? And now he's telling people to boycott my album, dirty, and telling people not to get paid off rapping."

I offer many other examples of KRS' hypocrisies and Nelly equals, if not betters me with even more. "It's like snitching, snitching in the worst degree, you feel me Dirty?" as Nelly starts snickering "He's talkin all this stuff about me, telling people to boycott my album and and I'm the one out there doing charity work, and on top of that my tracks weren't even about him. Why would I diss KRS 1 for no reason, dirty? He's a legend and I have the up most respect for him for what he's done for the music, but right now he's snitching."

Whether or not KRS' snitching will pay off for him, or end up being added promotion for Nelly has yet to be seen. But fans and critics alike need to realize Nelly is in this for the long haul, and if anything, he's had to prove himself more often than anyone else in the game when he shouldn't even begin to have to. Look out for "Nellyville", and fellow St. Lunatics' member solo albums in stores soon, and experience these brothers dreams to create avenues for kids to succeed and get an equal opportunity without having to cross the line between right and wrong. Like dead prez said, it's really "bigger than Hiphop."