The Drake and Nelly comparisons make sense. Both bucked traditional notions of Hip Hop through more melodic rhyming, gained an enormous mainstream following and became top tier pop stars in their prime. But leave it to the Twitterverse, the conversation stems from the age-old generation gap debate.
Thank you internet for the biggest meta-debate in recent rap memory.
What’s abundantly clear is the haters Drake and Nelly have accumulated throughout their careers. Regardless, there are accomplishments on both sides, and HipHopDX is here to see how the numbers stack up.
Social Followers
As the more relevant artist in the social media age, obviously Drake has a major edge over Nelly on IG and Twitter followers, though Nelly probably had ICQ popping 15 years ago.
Instagram
Nelly: 1.9 Million
Drake: 32.4 Million
Twitter
Nelly: 4.19 Million
Drake: 34.6 Million
Billboard Hot 100 #1 Appearances
Both have been at the top of Billboard’s song charts. In Drake’s case, he’s gone to #1 twice with Rihanna (“What’s My Name” and “Work,” both from her albums), and once as lead artist for “One Dance.” Meanwhile, Nelly has been to the top four times — all as lead artist — for “Hot In Herre,” “Dilemma” (featuring Kelly Rowland), “Shake Ya Tailfeather” (featuring P. Diddy and Murphy Lee) and “Grillz” (featuring Paul Wall and Ali & Gipp).
Drake: 3
Nelly: 4
#1 Billboard Albums
Nelly has seven albums under his belt compared to Drake’s four albums and five mixtapes.
All of Drake’s studio albums, plus his two most recent mixtapes, have hit the #1 spot. Nelly last reached the top with 2004’s Suit, with his most recent album, 2013’s M.O., peaking at #14.
Drake: 6
Nelly: 3
# Of Charted Billboard Singles
Drake’s musical output outpaces Nelly’s, and the number of his singles that have charted definitely reflect that. Still, for Nelly to have 35 charting singles in the pre-streaming days is an incredible feat.
Drake: 132
Nelly: 35
Longest Consecutive Run At #1 On Billboard 200
Drake did 12 weeks in a row with VIEWS and then jumped back into the #1 spot after being knocked out. In its 37th week on the chart, the album is currently at #7.
Drake: 12 Weeks (VIEWS)
Nelly: 5 Weeks (Country Grammar)
Total Record Sales
Drake’s numbers obviously account more for both sales and streams. Nelly’s 21 million are mainly pure sales. Let’s not forget that Country Grammar is one of only Hip Hop albums to hit diamond status.
Drake: ~10 Million
Nelly: ~21 Million
Biggest YouTube Video
“Hotline Bling” was a cultural phenomenon that even had Donald Trump singing along. Nelly’s biggest hit single “Dilemma” has been around much longer and didn’t reach one-third the views of Drake’s classic video.
Drake: “Hotline Bling” – 1,105,640,841 views
Nelly: “Dilemma” Featuring Kelly Rowland – 310,383,826 views
Number Of Grammys
Drake overall has far more Grammy nominations than Nelly (35 to 12) but still has some catching up to do with the wins. Interestingly enough, the last nod the lead St. Lunatic received was in 2007 for “Grillz.”
Drake: 1
Nelly: 3
Average Metacritic Score
Neither Drake nor Nelly are critical darlings to say the least. Nelly’s score doesn’t take into consideration reviews from his debut album Nellyville, which surely would have placed him a bit higher.
Drake: 76%
Nelly: 62%
That total number of records and having your 1st album go diamond is more than enough to cease and desist with this non sense comparison
Two different eras and two totally different artists. Nelly had his own lane. Drake has fake competition. Nelly didn’t have any competition. Nelly made his own style. Drake copies the latest trend and perfects that trend. Nelly is from the Lou. A real hood. One most ghettoest places in the States. Drake is from dry as Canada.
Nelly borrowed from Wish Bone.
Lol Wish my nigga, but he quit trying after Resurrection, Kray, lay and Bizzy carry him, but he still loved by Btnh fans
because he is loyal, likealble and really humble. We will never get that Wish solo lol. still love him tho.
disagree on a couple points. Other than Views, Drake is pretty much a “critical darling”. Pitchfork (considered by critic nerds as the highest bar for critics) gave his first 4 albums 80+ reviews. likewise, XXL, New York Times etc. It’s hilarious how the writer tries to skim over the Hot 100 singles thing where Drake clearly dwarfs Nelly. What about Number 1 Rap songs on billboard? Drake dwarfs Nelly there too.
Ok but consider that Nelly sold 21,000,000 physical album sales to Drakes 10(with the help of streams) so if u jus gonna go by numbers these are the numbers that matter.
My personal preference is nelly all day.. Drake seems like a publicists frankenstien creation.. He has talent for sure but he seems like a creation more than an artist…
LMAO this site Always delete my comments! GTFOH
Idc about sales or singles on the charts or any of that. I barely care about reviews since those can be bought and sold. Neither of them make that great of music imo. If go with belt because at least he makes his own stuff.
I think it is fair to say that if YouTube existed when tip drill dropped, Nelly would’ve beat the YouTube category hands down (Tip Drill came out in 2000 and was the reason everybody stayed up for BET uncut, among other rated R videos, YouTube launched in 2005). Anyway, this is a fantasy comparison. Different eras, different variables such as social media coming into play, different generation. It would be a fairer comparison if we miraculously teleported them to the others timeline and compared the outcomes on past and present levels.
Nelly was all singy songy no bars, no longevity.Drake wins without trying.
You forgot something; Religion: Drake jevvish, Nelly christian
Chingy is better than both of those clowns
I see what you did right thurr. Remember when dude was dating a chick with dick?
That never happened that Dude lied on Mr Right Thurr Chicken Head dance co founder. That lie ruined his lil 15min of fame career and cut it to just under 5min smh. I’m all for the jokes but big on the facts!
900Ksold stfu bitch nobody even cares to read a txt msg dat long
Quf up dude, both nigga are good in their own ways, I mean, Drake is a cheese boy, he grew up in a more civilised place yet Nelly is a Compton gotta who grew up in a rough place, so ain’t that obvious that them two will obviously toq about different things in their music
U ain’t from Compton…
No discussion end of story ! 6god going to be considered GOAT with his rapping and singing at such a high level once he hangs up the J’s! Drake diss record better then most artists major single FACT. Views still 7 on a chart since April 2016 ! More Life
Remove that niggas cock and balls from your mouth
Diamond Nellyville 4 RiRi 2 Pop ?☠️
Two artists two eras. Both were huge during their eras. And these two can’t be compared. It’s the same as the Bruno Mars Michael Jackson comparisons.
i disagree you can’t compare bruno to mj. Nobody was touching MJ and bruno will never make the impact mike did. mj was the king of pop
A couple of those numbers surprise me because Hot in Herrr and Dilemma was everyyyyyyyyyywhereeeeeee. I would of thought Nellyville also went Diamond based on the awareness of those two singles.
love that place !! <3
Nelly got more total record sales so he wins, they both suck tho
Nelly battled KRS-1 struck a mean blow and wrote all his own rhymes tho… 2017 and no one cares about authenticity. Nelly for the W
I didn’t know Nelly was from Compton…. LoL.
What does IG and twitter have to do with anything, hasn’t it been proven that stars numbers can be spiked? pretty sure drake doesn’t really have 32 and 34 million twitter followers
He has more than double his album sales. This is a joke. Social media followers? Dx you are clowns for even comparing the 2. Justin hunte ruined this site!!!!!
thats was when people still bought cds…
so whut ¿? cds r whut make da world go round fukk outta here close-minded ratty
Real hiphop heads don’t care, we still bumping Bone thugs, Outkast, Wu, Pac, Pun, Biggie, Nas, Common and listening to J .Dilla instrumentals.
Drake was put on by Lil Wayne at a time when Lil Wayne was the biggest rapper in the game. Nelly was put on by nobody. I’ll take Nelly for the win at the buzzer.
i guess asterisks aren’t used in 2016 bc nelly didn’t have the internet and self promotion drake does. nelly had the internet he’d of went double diamond
Agree
I think a most obvious comparison would be between Lil Wayne(post hot boyz era) and Drake
Nelly’s debut LP was ‘Country Grammar’, not ‘Nellyville’; that was his sophomore album.
just FYI
Nelly write his own music, and he sold more than double than Drake. Nelly sales are pure physical sales while Drake is streams combined. You cant compare real Talent to an Actor like Drake.
yo, you a battyman, fam.
I enjoy Drake’s music over Nelly’s (I hated that Grillz song and the whole St. Louis twang shit) but as far as innovation, I think Nelly’s got more pull. I hate how Drake made it cool to be such a whiny, battyman type of artist. I like Nelly’s energy and positive impact on the hip-hop community. He made stuff fun again… Drake brought the rain clouds.
Nelly took on KRS-One too and he made sense on why he did it. Drake woulda gotten on them ashy yellow knees of his and got to slobbin’ the legend. Battyman.
I would take Country Grammar over anything Drake has put out. Drakes ok but his style is pretty boring sometimes. I will listen to some of his music but I’m like this is for females dude after a few songs. The people that hate on Drake clearly don’t understand the music industry. If you check the credits on a Hip Hop song, some normally at least 5 people are credited for writing credits
I wouldn’t compare these two because of the difference of eras..but now that you brought it to my attention…Drake is the new Nelly haha
big Sean drake nelly LL cool J ily guysz ?