St. Louis rapper Nelly said his racy "Tip Drill" video is no worse than Halle Berry's on screen sex scene in Monster's Ball.
In an exclusive interview, the platinum-selling rapper said that there is a double standard in place when actors can simulate sex onscreen but rappers are criticized for having half-naked women in their videos.
"You look at Essence magazine, and they wouldn't put a rapper on the cover," he told. "They wouldn't put Nelly on the cover of Essence. Why? I don't know. Would I like to do it? Of course I would. Why not?" "You wouldn't put me on the cover because of the 'Tip Drill' video ... that's probably your main focus," he added. "But yet still, you put HalleBerry on the cover. She's had a 15-minute sex scene with some white guy in front of a couch ... I mean you can't tell me that 'Tip Drill' was worse than watching that sex scene between Billy Bob (Thornton) and Halle Berry. You can't tell me that. That was longer than four or five minutes. You feel what I'm sayin'?"
Back in 2005 Essence launched the "Take Back the Music" campaign, a year-long effort to clean up hip-hop music, which targeted rappers like Nelly for their messages about women.
The "Tip Drill" video finds Nelly and his St. Lunatics crew surrounded by women in bikinis and thongs dancing, contorting, and in the uncensored version - simulating sexual acts while topless. In Monster's Ball Berry and Thornton have a graphic, extended love scene.
Nelly said his charity work is overlooked when he is maligned for the images in his videos.
"I do numerous charity events," Nelly said. "I've got people signed up on the bone marrow, stem cell. I've got over 5,000 people registered through our not for profit and things that we've been able to do. We found 7 donors ... for people that needed transplants. We've helped saved 7 lives. Period. Have you done that?"
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the rapper has also teamed up with NBA guard and St. Louis native Larry Hughes to build a massive athletic complex on 60 acres of farmland held by Nelly's development company, Nelly Inc.
"We're trying to keep this under wraps," said Christopher "Topher" Jones, managing partner of Nelly Inc. "This thing is in the baby stages. We're still in talks with the city."
Nelly's new album Brass Knuckles is set to drop on December 11.