Behind The Music: Nelly Tease

"Now I was hard on him when it came to discipline. He probably said I abused him too by the way I was whoopin' his butt or beatin' on him. But it made a better person out of him." - Cornell Haynes, Sr., Nelly's father, on Nelly's abuse claims and his childhood

"My father lead by fear. I did what my father said 'cause I was scared of getting my ass beat. His voice rang so vividly in my head. That it was just�a fear." � Nelly on his father while growing up

"I was slinging whatever I could get my hands on. Whether it was chronic, whether it was crack." - Nelly on selling drugs straight out of high school

"Sometimes I would ride with my daughter in the car to go make transactions. A couple of times me, her and my baby mother would be in the car and you know we would kind of be riding dirty. So like I said, again man, I was very na�ve." � Nelly on selling drugs to make a living when his daughter Chanel was a baby

"When he told me that he's not gonna sling anymore, that was the greatest gift he's ever given me. So now, I don't have to worry now about getting that phone call at two thirty in the morning telling me my child dead somewhere. Or locked up somewhere. I was at peace then. I can, I can go to sleep now." - Rhonda Mack, Nelly's mother, on Nelly deciding to quit selling drugs following his friend's incarceration and being on the cusp of musical success

"The performance of the record was unlike anything we had ever seen. It was just that big. Nobody can ever anticipate that kind of success." - Monte Lipman, President & CEO of Universal Records, on the success of "Country Grammar"

"Life changed period in every facet. Now you are somebody. Now you are the guys that have the chance to be from St. Louis and put this city where it rightfully deserves to be." - Nelly on his success of "Country Grammar"

"The first time I met Nelly he asked me for my autograph, but I think he was being sarcastic and I remember writing it down on the program� That picture has been in so many publications as something else but it all started out as a joke. For the record, it took him a long time to get my number [laughs]. " - Ashanti on meeting Nelly for the first time at a press conference for the 2003 Grammy Awards.

"She gets off the phone and she lays down and she's gone. They said the only thing that kept her alive is that she wanted to talk to me before she left. She was everything to me man."- Nelly on his sister Jackie passing away from Leukemia

"�and I was enraged. And we had this door in the back where my room was and I split the door straight down the middle, just punched it, split the whole door. Broke right off the hinges. TV screen. Punched it. Psh! Shattered it. Everything. I just like destroyed everything that was back there. And I just broke down yo. One of the rare moments I did cry. [Sigh] She was everything to me man." - Nelly on receiving the news that his sister Jackie had passed away

"'Brass Knuckles' wasn't my best work. But, my mind wasn't in it. I wasn't prepared. It had been four years, so much stuff happened. I didn't deliver the music, I'm gonna take that. I didn't give you a top ten hit. I did not do that. That's my job." - Nelly on the disappointment of his album "Brass Knuckles" in 2008

"It feels good man it just, it rekindles your love for what it is that you do. When you have something that you felt should work and it does work." - Nelly on the success of his new singe "It's Just a Dream"