(Source: mtv.com)

(www.NellyHQ.com)

MTV: Who are some of your influences?

Nelly: We get what's hot on the East, we get what's hot on the West, we definitely get what's hot on the South and Midwest, for sure. We try to combine that, 'cause we've got a lot of rap acts in St. Louis. A lot of people take more or less to the West Coast side of things; we got some people who take to the Southern side of things, some people take to the East Coast side of things. 'Cause that's like when a group comes out in St. Louis, you don't really know what it's gonna sound like, for real, until you hear them, 'cause people take from all different sides. I listen to everybody from 2Pac, Biggie... when you say L.L., man, you know that's a big influence right there. Snoop, Goodie M.O.B., Outkast. We just pump it all right there. If it's hot, it's definitely in St. Louis. You don't know what's hot, you come to St. Louis, 'cause it's like in the middle, so you gonna hear it all. Our radio stations play it all, 'cause we don't have a lot of independent music that we're playing on our radio. Now I've got a couple of songs. We've got a couple of independent labels that's getting a few more spins now because of the success that we're having, so to speak. It's opening up our radio stations to be like, "OK, well, let's play more of our own music a little more." But we still bump a lot of stuff from other regions and other areas.