Nelly, Ferguson: St. Louis Rapper Speaks Out On Protests, Says 'We Have To Strategize Before We Overreact'

Nelly jumped on St. Louis' Hot 104.1 Thursday to clarify his statements on the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.

The combination of a late response (five days after the incident) and a message that didn't align with many of the protestors ("calm down") resulted in severe backlash against the Missouri-born rapper.

HipHopWired points out that people simply didn't buy Nelly's patient approach, especially because he tweeted out a picture of Cheerios before he even commented on the national news in his backyard.

Saturday, TMZ released a short follow-up interview with Nelly, who tried to clarify his statements.

"I understand the frustration, but we have to strategize before we overreact," he said. "We don't get no do-over on sh-- like this, so we have to do it right the first time.

"Ain't nothing happen no different that hasn't been happening ... At the end of the day, we should have waited to strategize first and take all the right steps to organize."

Atlanta-based rapper T.I. agreed.

"We needed to play chess instead of checkers," he said. "We should have waited to see if justice was going to be served first ... We shouldn't have played our strongest hand first."

But Nelly is not completely removing himself from the situation; he said that he's also starting a scholarship fund in Brown's name.

According to TMZ: Nelly, T.I., Kevin Hart and NBA player Al Jefferson are the first four celebrities pledging $15,000 a year in college tuition to teens chosen by the Brown family.

Check out some of the heat Nelly has been receiving on Twitter:

Tags

Nelly, Ferguson, Michael Brown