Nelly at the Mississippi Valley Fair -- August 3.
Wednesday, August 3, 8 p.m.
Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 2815 West Locust Street, Davenport IA
A pair of bona fide rap and hip-hop legends act as co-headliners for the August 3 grandstand event at the 2022 Mississippi Valley Fair, with the second night of the fest boasting a two-fer concert featuring the Grammy-winning, multi-platinum-selling Nelly and the chart-topping, People's Choice Award-winning Flo Rida.
A native of Austin, Texas, Nelly (born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.) embarked on his music career with the hip-hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album Country Grammar, of which the featured title track and the single "Ride wit Me" were top-10 hits. The recording topped the Billboard 200 chart and became Nelly's biggest album success to date, selling over 8.4 million copies in the United States. His sophomore release Nellyville produced the number-one hits "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma" (featuring Kelly Rowland), along with the top-five single "Air Force Ones" (featuring Murphy Lee and St. Lunatics).
With the same-day dual release of 2004's Sweat and Suit and the 2006 compilation Sweatsuit, Nelly continued to generate many chart-topping hits. Sweat debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 342,000 copies in its first week, and in the same week of release, Suit debuted at number one, selling around 396,000 copies on the same chart. Nelly's fifth studio album Brass Knuckles was released in 2008, boasting the hit singles "Party People" (featuring Fergie), "Stepped on My J'z" (featuring Jermaine Dupri and Ciara), and "Body on Me" (featuring Akon and Ashanti). In 2010, Nelly released the album 5.0 whose lead single "Just a Dream" was certified triple platinum, with the recording also spawning the singles "Move That Body" (featuring T-Pain and Akon) and "Gone" (featuring Kelly Rowland).
Nelly has won multiple accolades throughout his career, including three Grammy Awards and nine Billboard Music Awards. In 2005, he starred in the comedy remake The Longest Yard alongside Adam Sandler and Chris Rock; he has two clothing lines in Vokal and Apple Bottoms; and Nelly has been referred to by Peter Shapiro as "one of the biggest stars of the new millennium." In December of 2009, Billboard ranked Nelly the number-three Top Artist of the Decade, and as of 2014, Nelly was ranked by the RIAA as the fourth-best-selling rap artist in American music history, with 21 million albums sold in the United States.
Growing up in Florida, the state from which his stage name was derived, Flo Rida (mn2s.com/booking-agency/live-roster/flo-rida) was involved in a hip-hop group in his teenage years, and his solo demo recording led to the artist signing with Poe Boy Entertainment in 2006. His debut single "Low" (featuring T-Pain), released in 2007, reached number one in many countries – among them Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States – and was featured on the track listing of the soundtrack to Step Up 2: The Streets. The single stayed atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks, going on to be certified five-times platinum, and the song was included on his debut album Mail on Sunday, which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 following its 2008 release. Subsequent singles "Elevator" featuring Timbaland and "In the Ayer" featuring will.i.am both peaked within the top 20 in the five aforementioned countries, and in the same year, a collaboration with Jessica Mauboy on "Running Back" reached number three in Australia, where it was double-platinum certified.
In 2009, Flo Rida released his second studio album R.O.O.T.S., whose lead single "Right Round" topped the national charts of Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the American one, where it remained for six consecutive weeks. The single, which features Kesha, was eventually certified quadruple-platinum in the U.S. and triple-platinum in Australia and Canada, with four additional singles released from the album: "Shone," "Jump" (featuring Nelly Furtado), "Sugar" (featuring Wynter), and "Be on You" (featuring Ne-Yo), the latter two peaking in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. R.O.O.T.S. Itself peaked at number eight in the U.S. and number five in the U.K., and in 2009, Flo Rida appeared on The X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's "Bad Boys," a number-one single in both Ireland and the U.K. The following year, a featured appearance on The Saturdays' "Higher" reached number 10 in the U.K.
Flo Rida's next two studio albums were announced in 2010 as a two-part oeuvre. Only One Flo (Part 1), which was released in November to showcase melodic talent, contains the David Guetta-assisted "Club Can't Handle Me," a number-one single in Ireland and the U.K., and the album's second single "Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" was a top-40 hit in Australia and New Zealand. Flo Rida's Follow-up album Wild Ones was released in July of 2012 and stands as the artist's most successful studio album, with its string of global top-five hits including "Good Feeling," "Wild Ones," "Whistle," and "I Cry." In 2015, Flo Rida's 2014 single "G.D.F.R." peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later certified triple platinum, while the following year, his single "My House" peaked at number four on the Hot 100, making it Flo Rida's 11th top-10 smash.
Nelly and Flo Rida perform their Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds sets at 8 p.m. on August 3, and $80-100 MVF Fun Cards are required for admittance into any and all Grandstand concerts this summer. For more information on the concert and the Mississippi Valley Fair, call (563)326-5338 and visit MVFair.com.
