Nelly Bringing ‘Heartland’ to ‘CMT Crossroads’ With Guests Kane Brown, Florida Georgia Line + More
Rapper Nelly, who's got a lengthy history of dabbling -- with impressive success -- in the country music genre, is now making history as the first hip-hop artist to ever headline an episode of CMT Crossroads. His episode of the series, titled CMT Crossroads: Nelly & Friends, will focus on his country feature-filled new album, Heartland.
Many of the artists Nelly collaborates with on Heartland are familiar names to country fans. Most recently, the rapper shared the album's funk-infused second single, "High Horse," which features Breland and Blanco Brown. Before that, he reunited with his longtime friends and former "Cruise" duet partners, Florida Georgia Line, for Heartland's lead single, "Lil Bit."
Brown, Breland and FGL are all set to join Nelly during his Crossroads episode, as is Kane Brown. A recent Instagram teaser post from the rapper revealed that Brown is featured on a track on Heartland called "Gritz & Glamour."
Ahead of Heartland's release on Friday (Aug. 27), Nelly shared another social media update that listed several other country stars as his collaborators on the project. Darius Rucker, Jimmie Allen and Tyler Hubbard (as a solo artist, in addition to the already-shared FGL collab) all pop up on the tracklist. So does breakout social media star-turned-country up-and-comer George Birge, as well as Chris Bandi.
Nelly -- whose first foray into the country genre took place back in 2004, with his Tim McGraw team-up "Over and Over" -- has found considerable success with his cross-genre collaborations, and he's hoping to continue that streak with his pioneering CMT Crossroads episode.
"I'm excited to celebrate my music with my friends and fellow artists on Crossroads! When people talk about me crossing lines and genres, I think about it more that music brings folks together," he explains in a press release.
Nelly's CMT Crossroads episode will air on Sept. 1 at 10PM ET on CMT.
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