This Weekend in Hip-Hop: Nelly at the Pageant and The Derrty DJ's Midwest Summit

By Keegan Hamilton Fri., May 15 2009 at 3:05 PM

Categories: Nelly

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It's a concert ten years in the making: Nelly is headlining a show at the Pageant on Sunday.

He's performed a few times over the past year (making cameos when various St. Lunatics opened for Lil' Wayne and T.I. at separate gigs at Chaifetz Arena) but this is the first time in a long time that the Lou's best-known rapper actually has his name at the top of a marquee.

So what if Brass Knuckles sounded like it was produced by an ADD kid who forgot to take his Ritalin? This is Cornell Hayes Jr people! He's the man who put Missouri on the hip-hop map, made the men and women of St. Louis proud to pronounce here and there hurr and thurr, and wore a band-aid on his face for no good reason and still looked cool.

If you like St. Louis hip-hop, you best be at the Pageant on Sunday. I recommend wearing your Apple Bottom jeans and them boots with the fur.

One thing you may not know, though, is that Nelly's performance is a keynote address of sorts. The second annual Midwest Summit (sponsored by The Derrty DJ's ) kicks off tonight at the Sheraton downtown.

It encompasses three days of meetings, panels, and nights at the club for the movers and shakers of region's hip-hop scene. (To give you an idea of what we're talking about, last year's summit featured events like the awesomely titled "How Can I Be Down Music Seminar.")

Most all the people who will decide what's going to blow up on the radio and in the club this year in the Midwest will be in attendance. (Sorry homes, if you haven't registered yet you're out of luck.) Sunday's show is the grand finale of the rap-tastic weekend.