Nelly has hit back at his haters who have criticised him for making commercial music, saying that he is still a hip-hop artist.

The rapper has experimented with a variety of sounds in recent years, even collaborating with country singer Tim McGraw. While some have blasted Nelly for abandoning his hip-hop roots and making music for the masses, he says he is still an "urban" artist."At the end of the day, I am urban, so you can't run from that fact," he told MTV.

"At the end of the day, it's another successful brother, stepping and breaking ground for the next brother to come along and do it... You do what works for you - I think you'd be an idiot to not do what works for you."

Nelly explains that he decided to experiment with different types of music because he realised he needed to do it to stay on top of the game. "They don't want me to be smart about it?" he continued.

"They wanna see another dumb brother not succeeding because he tried to do something that wasn't smart? That's what they say about us: We don't think first. Well, this brother thinking first. I plan on being here," he said.

Do you think Nelly sold himself out? Do you still consider him hip-hop?

Nelly partying with P. Diddy...