This Thursday marks the premiere of the new CW singing competition The Next where superstar mentors Nelly, Gloria Estefan, John Rich and Joe Jonas travel the country to prep unknown artists for a chance at winning a contract with Atlantic Records.
Nelly sat down with Ology to talk about his experience on the show and what we can expect from the talent and the mentors this season.
Be sure to check out our interviews with Joe Jonas and Gloria Estefan too!
OLOGY: So how did you get involved with the show?
Nelly: I’ve known Dave [Broome] for a minute as a producer. We worked on some other things previously. He just gave me a call, and thought it might be something I’d be cool with. I was real iffy at first (laughs), but we talked about how the show was going to go, how it was going to be different than the other shows, and I thought it’d be something fun to do.
Do you watch any of those other singing competition shows?
You know what? I think it’s one of those situations where when they first kind of hit, you’re more involved, and then as it goes on, it’s like "OK..."- you know what I’m saying? But not too many, no, not too many.
Do you learn anything while you’re mentoring these people?
Well I think, yeah. Because the show in itself is different, I mean, as far as me learning something, these artists may already have millions of views and they already have a fan base Internet-wise. It was different because all of our fan base was locally. When I first came on, the Internet wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. We would have to get out to the clubs and pass out our CDs. We would have to make that connection one-on-one and it was personal. Now, you could have 6 million views and not have a record deal, but have fans literally all over this country, all over this world. And that’s a little different because people already know these artists, so it’s not like you’re walking into a situation where it’s like "OK, I am going to make you a star." To be a star, you either got it or you don’t have it. And a lot of these people, they just need a different platform to show that they do have it and they may not have gotten the chance. So I’ve learned, you know, never take anything for granted in the sense of "everything helps." Because I didn’t know that the Internet would be so prevalent. You heard about it when we were coming up, but the Internet was just the Internet, and you never really attacked it like artists and people who are coming into this business attack it now. They attack it now. If you want to be an artist, the first thing you do is get you a Twitter page or a Facebook. First thing I did was start writing rhymes and try to record as much as possible, but it’s a little different now. I just learned not to take any of it for granted because all of it helps.
In this situation, you’re not necessarily working with a hip-hop artist or a rap artist. How was it working with musicians from other genres?
I mean, I’ve been doing that my whole career, so that’s nothing new. That’s not different – music is music. Again, I come from a time where I was born like a couple of years before hip-hop was even out. You know what I’m saying? So you’re looking at it from a standpoint now – kids are 24, 26 years old and they’ve been listening to hip-hop their whole life. So they only basically know one genre of music their whole life, so everything is hip-hop to them. And then when you’re dealing with other artists’ music, a lot of these artists are hip-hop based in almost all of them, depends on how young they are. So it doesn’t matter, it comes together.
When it comes to the people you’re mentoring, what’s the biggest challenge? Are you focused more on their singing, performance, look....?
Well, we don’t do – it’s not about looks too much for us. We’re not stylists (laughs). You know what I’m saying? We’re not on Project Runway or anything like that, but what I do try to encourage is that your style has to come through in your music as well. It’s OK to switch your style up fashionably and image-wise if you’re doing that through your music as well. If you want people to focus mainly on your music, then mostly everything has to be together. It’s kind of like if you see somebody who’s always singing about death, they’re usually in a lot of black (laughs). I mean, I don’t know, because you look at someone like Nicki Minaj. You never know what she’s going to wear, but her music emulates that. Her style is a little bit crazy and it’s a little bit out there, so it reflects it. So we’re not stylists in a sense, but I always try to encourage them like "Yo, it’s going to be important – the image you portray before you even open your mouth." When you step on stage, people are already getting this perception because they’re looking at what you’re wearing and they’re already putting this in their head now.
The next crucial thing is the shit that comes out of your mouth. You just try to give them as much confidence as possible as well. I think that’s where a mentor comes in and John says it best: we’re not in a position to be judging who should be a star, that’s not it. Many people have told me that I wasn’t "it." We’re not judges, we’re mentors. We’re here to encourage you, and we’re here to give you a little bit of insight on what could help you. What’s worked for us, maybe it can work for you. What didn’t work for us, maybe you could try to stay away from that. So it’s more of that encouragement and letting them know like "Yo, it’s going to be alright. Let’s walk this walk, let’s try not to do this, let’s try to focus in on this and that," and maybe it’ll help because at the end of the day, after we encourage them, and the 72 hours is basically up, it’s time for you to hit the stage. Now whether you take our advice at this point or not, it’s totally up to you. That gives us a lot of freedom to be honest and not to be so judgmental in a sense of we’re the ones who determine if you’re a star or not, because I don’t think that’s fair. We’re artists, too. Somebody would have told me – plenty of people have told me "You’re not going to make it."
With a lot of these shows, the rapport between the judges is crucial. What’s it like working with Joe, John and Gloria?
It’s great! It’s kind of hard to explain – it’s kind of like going to college in a way, and you’re in this frat house, and you got people from all over, but you realize that you have so many things in common. Like, your love of music, your love to want to help other people, your love of what you do, the passion that you put into what you do. If you look at us, we’ve all had a tremendous amount of success in one way or another. You’re talking Gloria Estefan – I mean, we can all hope to be where she’s at further down the line. John Rich, Big and Rich, I mean, he’s great. And then you’re talking about a Jonas brother. This guy can’t even walk to the corner – girls go crazy. It’s a cool thing. You know, so us hanging out is all cool. Me, Joe and John – we smoke a lot of cigars. It’s kind of like, we call it "Gloria and the Pips" (laughs). So it’s cool.
Do you guys get competitive at all with your contestants?
No, I don’t think it’s competitive because again, we all want to win. I mean, obviously, you want to be the one that helps your artist that you’re mentoring, be the one that’s like "She took my advice and it worked." But you also have to be real. It’s like "Wow man, your artist was great." Because at the end of the day, we’re not judging, the world is judging. My credibility is shot if I really think my artist should’ve won, and I know she didn’t kill it. I think it adds that credibility to the show. I don’t think it’s more or less us playing into each other as opposed to the competition that naturally comes from wanting to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s them, me, you or her. It’s just like going bowling with your family: you don’t hate them (laughs). You’re not in competition with them, but you want to win. You’re not throwing bowling balls at them. I don’t know, some families do that (laughs). I do that with my son in a video game. He beat me one time, and I sent his little ass to bed. I was upset.
How was the experience of immersing yourself into their lives? Were there any awkward moments or was it uncomfortable for you at all?
Well, obviously, when you go into their homes, you’re experiencing their life. This is where they wake up, this is where they go to sleep, where they eat, where they think. I’ll just say that I saw some interesting things (laughs). I didn’t mind it at all, it was cool.
The Next premieres Thursday, Aug. 16 at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments!
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