*Behind every great man is a great woman. Or in Nelly’s case, a great mother. The St. Louis rhymesayer opened up about his matriarch, Rhonda Mack, during an appearance on The Shop” podcast, recalling how he retired his mother after more than 30 years working in the fast-food industry.
Via Mack, Nelly’s ‘hustler’ mind state was born during his teen years, as he witnessed her balancing jobs in fast food and landed his first job at age 14. At the time, Mack worked as a manager at the McDonald’s in Clayton, MO, while her famous son saved up to attend his high school’s homecoming.
“She said, ‘Yo, I can’t give you a real job, but on the weekends they got a truck… She said, ‘I can give you a job there.’ I said, ‘Oh, I’ll take it.’ And the owner would pay me $25… I wound up getting about $140 by the time homecoming came,” Nelly said.
In high school, Nelly’s hustle proved fruitful with working at the grill at McDonald’s by working at the grill, he told Access Hollywood. Although a career at McDonald’s would’ve been interesting, Nelly’s uncle is the one who shifted his focus to music, courtesy of his uncle. The result was a “love affair” with music, which was highlighted with Nelly’s country music-flavored material.
With years under his belt in the music industry, Nelly’s hard work paid off upon the release of his 2000 album, “Country Grammar.” Despite generating attention and with hit after hit, Nelly made sure to give back to his mother in a big way.
Access Hollywood detailed the rapper’s plan to retire his mother, noting how he pulled into the drive-thru of her workplace during her shift and told her she could quit her job in fast food after three decades of working in fast food.
“I didn’t tell her I was coming, and I just drove through the drive-thru, and I pulled up to the window, and she was like, ‘Hey.’ She didn’t know I was coming,” Nelly told “Access.” “And I was like, ‘You should come with me. You can quit.’ And that was basically the best memory that I had, was being able to pull up to her job and tell her she doesn’t have to work there anymore.”
“My mom had worked in fast food for over 30 years, and it was kind of rough if you ever worked in fast food, which I worked at McDonald’s all through high school and things like that, so I knew it could be very taxing, but she did it for over 30 years,” he continued. “Sometimes, she worked two jobs at once, and that was very rewarding for myself to be able to do that for her.”
Needless to say, life after McDonald’s worked out pretty well for Nelly and his mother. The spirit of a hustler is alive and well with these two.
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