In the summer of 2000, Cornell "Nelly" Haynes Jr. did the unbelievable. Nelly, an unknown rapper from St. Louis, Missouri, sold over a quarter of a million copies of his debut album, Country Grammar during its first week of release. On the strength of his first single "Country Grammar (Hot . . .)," the album would spend seven weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. His subsequent hits, "E.I.