According to Nelly, Slo Down never paid his dues while a part of the group and joined his rap crew after their early struggles.
“Well first of all, the St. Lunatics were together way before Slo Down,” Nelly said in an interview. “You see what I’m saying? That’s what people don’t understand. We were way before Slo Down. By the time we met Slo Down, we almost had a deal with Universal. You see what I’m saying? People need to know the history because you do get some people [saying], ‘Oh, how could you do him like that?’ Well, let me give you the history. St. Lunatics have been together since ’93 — we probably got up around Slo Down around ’97…When it stops becoming an opportunity and you start relying on someone to help you make something of yourself, now here you have a situation to where you had someone in a group — they didn’t write music, that wouldn’t even come to the studio to hear the music getting made, you wouldn’t hang out in there — and you made a substantial amount of money, which is unbelievable, to basically be on-stage for an hour and not rap a word…Ain’t nobody bought a ticket to see this man at a show, ain’t nobody bought a CD to hear this man say words that he didn’t even say, it’s not even rap, ain’t nobody bought Apple Bottom line because of him — you didn’t even sell the mask…” (Music Choice)
