Thor Christensen

Backstage at The Tonight Show, a multitasking Nelly chats with Jay Leno while on the phone with a reporter: "Hey! What up, Jay? You good? You gonna let me drive your car I saw downstairs? That wasn't a 'Yes.' Ha! See you later, man."

The rapper glides back into the interview as if being interrupted by a major celebrity is no big deal.

In Nellyville, it isn't.On his new CD, Brass Knuckles, the rapper teams with an A-list of hip-hop and R&B stars, from Snoop Dogg and L.L. Cool J. to Usher and R. Kelly. But he says he was most jazzed by his "Self Esteem" duet with Chuck D. of Public Enemy.

"Chuck D. was so instrumental in music," says Nelly, who grew up listening to Public Enemy's topical raps. "A group like that is needed today, but it would have to be a full-fledged P.E.-type group, not just guys who are political one day, and the next day they're partying. That's what I do."

Actually, Nelly is the life of the party eight days a week.

The 33-year-old rapper came to fame with 2000's "Country Grammar," a song about smoking weed with the ladies in his new Range Rover. He followed it up with "Hot in Herre," with its famous chorus, "Take off all your clothes." His recent single with Fergie is titled – what else? – "Party People."

But the high-living Nelly of today is a far cry from the Cornell Haynes Jr. of yesteryear.

Born in Austin, where his dad was in the military, he moved around a lot and landed in St. Louis at age 8 after his parents divorced. He got expelled from school and moved out of his mom's apartment at an early age, but he quickly learned a strong work ethic, thanks to a job at Mickey D's.

"Working at McDonald's, I know what hard work really is," he says. "Lunch rushes and breakfast rushes are crazy, and if you show up 15 minutes late, you can lose your job. It's constant hard work for minimum wage."

Hip-hop fame brought him bigger paychecks, but "I didn't know what problems were until I had a successful career," he says.

"When you're poor, all the problems you have are financial. But once you have success, you see problems you didn't know existed, like greed and envy."

He refuses to talk specifics. But he will admit his biggest financial mistake was "trying to help people that don't want to help themselves. Some people just want you to take care of them. You're cool as long as you're giving, but the second you stop giving, then something's wrong with you."

He had another wake-up call in 2001, when his sister Jackie was diagnosed with leukemia. She died of the disease in 2005.

"It taught me that things you think are important just don't seem as important. The things that really are important are right there in front of your face."

So while his fellow rappers feud and dis everyone in sight, Nelly has no time for negativity.

"I've been through so much rough stuff in my life, I don't need to deal with that nonsense now. I just want to chill and party, man," he says. "Where the girls at?"Plan your life

8 p.m. Monday at House of Blues, 2200 N. Lamar. Doors at 7. $37.50 to $75. Ticketmaster.

Listen to songs from Nelly's Brass Knuckles at www.myspace.com/nelly.

ARCHIVES: Search for more stories on this and other topics | Search Tips

SUBSCRIBE: Get The Dallas Morning News delivered to your home