Nelly is going from “Country Grammar” to the actual country: His upcoming project, Heartland, will be heavy on country music influences. You can hear it on the first single, “Lil Bit,” which features superstar country duo Florida Georgia Line. But as Florida Georgia Line‘s Tyler Hubbard notes, this is far from the first time they’ve worked with the “Hot In Herre” rapper.
“We’ve got quite the history together,” Tyler says, referring to the fact that Nelly joined them for a top 10 remix of their smash song “Cruise” back in 2013. That same year, the duo was featured on a track on Nelly’s album M.O., and they even toured together in 2017.
“What a cool opportunity and how humbling to have Nelly ask us to do another song together,” Tyler says of “Lil Bit.” “We all grew up listening to Nelly and loving Nelly, so getting the opportunity to work with him and write with him was just incredible,” Tyler adds of himself and the song’s other writers.
“Ultimately, I don’t think we were writing specifically for anybody or anything,” he says of the initial songwriting session for “Lil Bit.” “I’m sure we were all thinking, let’s just write a hit. And yeah, I think we had hope that this would turn out into something that Nelly would cut.”
Tyler adds, “It turned into something that he wanted [Florida Georgia Line”] to stay on and it turned into something even bigger and even more fun…So it just worked out and it was awesome.”
Heartland comes out on August 27, and it features guest appearances by other country stars, including Hootie & the Blowfish singer and country star Darius Rucker.
By the way, Nelly also topped the country charts in 2004 with “Over and Over.”
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