Nelly Denies Flo Rida’s ‘Low’ Was Offered to Him First: ‘T-Pain’s Lying’

Nelly has denied that he was in the running for the 2007 Flo Rida and T-Pain hit song “Low.”

The song, which skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, remaining at the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks, features a reference to the Nelly-owned women’s brand Apple Bottom Jeans.

For a dose of 2000s nostalgia, Nelly has just remixed “Low” for his new Apple Bubly Jeans, where the hook is replaced with “Shawty had them Apple Bubly Jeans.”

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“Shout out to Flo and T-Pain, two great people, great artists. They killed it, man,” said the three-time Grammy winner in a new People interview. “Certain things happen organically, and that song [was] organic because we were having the type of success that we were having with Apple Bottoms at the time.”

Since “Low” referenced Apple Bottom Jeans, and Nelly and Flo Rida had a similar pop rap style, it raised the question of why the St. Louis rapper wasn’t on the original song. Then in a 2022 episode of Joe Budden‘s former show Pull Up, T-Pain claimed that “Low” was rejected by Nelly and Paul Wall before going to Flo Rida.

“I did the hook to ‘Low’ and ‘Shawty’ in the same night,” T-Pain told Budden, adding that the “Low” demo was sent to “a bunch of fucking people.”

“Paul Wall had ‘Low’ first, but he did it and it was dope version of it, but Atlanta [Records] didn’t like it, and then they gave it to Nelly because he had the Apple Bottoms franchise,” T-Pain added. “Nelly said it was corny.”

But three years later, Nelly has denied that the song was brought to him. “T-Pain lying, man. I ain’t never heard that song,” he told People. “But everything happens for a reason. You know what I mean? We don’t know what the song would’ve been if I did it.”

Apple Bubly Jeans is Nelly’s latest venture since relaunching his clothing brand in 2024 after a 15-year hiatus, which was shown on his Peacock reality show with Ashanti, We Belong Together.

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