Hot in Herre

On April 15, 2002, "Hot in Herre" received over 760,000 streams on AOL Music's First Listen feature following its debut, setting a record for the website.^[5] The song was the inaugural winner of the Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards on February 23, 2003.^[6] In 2008, it was ranked number 36 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop".^[7]

The song became Nelly's first number-one hit on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Singles Chart, as well as The Neptunes' first number-one as producers. It peaked at number four in the United Kingdom and reached the top 10 in several other international markets. The song finished 2002 at number three on the Hot 100's year-end chart.

In 2014, the San Francisco radio station Hot 105.7 played the song on a continuous loop to promote its change from a Latin music station. The marathon lasted 72 hours and made worldwide headlines.^[8][9]

There were two music videos made for the single "Hot in Herre"; the rarely-seen original, which takes place at the iconic Gateway Arch, features cameo appearances by actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer, NBA player Carmelo Anthony, and NFL players T. J. Duckett and Julius Peppers. This version was broadcast heavily on MTV Europe. The second, alternative video was broadcast the most in North America on BET, MTV, Canada's MuchMusic, and on VH1; this version is set in a nightclub, and features a D.J., portrayed also by Cedric the Entertainer, who pauses the song abruptly to announce a “fire” having started on the dancefloor, from the intensity of the music and sexy dancing. The crowd, indifferent, begins chanting the chorus from Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three's "The Roof Is on Fire", to express their total dedication to partying; shrugging it off, the D.J. gives up and goes back to mixing. Nelly's love interest in the video was portrayed by Pasha Bleasdell. Bleasdell died of brain cancer on June 4, 2022, at the age of 38.^[10]