It takes Nelly to bring together St. Louis media like no other artist can.

Nelly holed up inside his cool Skybox sports bar on Laclede’s Landing Thursday afternoon  where St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Alive magazine, Riverfront Times, and St. Louis American were assembled to meet with him to talk up his upcoming “Brass Knuckles” CD.

Nelly, whom I’d hadn’t had real face time with since 2004’s “Sweat” and “Suit” CDs, had plenty to offer me about his new CD, which features Fergie, Ciara, Snoop Dogg, Ashanti, Akon, Jermaine Dupri, and more.

But when it comes to Nelly, there’s also tons of other stuff to talk about. And we definitely took it there.

We hit on his newly-buffed body and the controversy over hip-hop stars and steroids; whether he took too long to mount his return; his relationship with Ashanti; his tiff with St. Louis rapper Huey; the real story behind last year’s curious “Wasyaname” single; and his explanation why acts on his Derrty Ent. label have been sitting on the shelf for years.

Nelly, busy this week with activities related to his www.4sho4kids.org foundation, even had a surprise up his sleeves. He said his next project will be forming a funk/rock band called Nelly N’ Nem.

The rapper was open, honest, and animated throughout our lengthy private chat.

Consider this a tease. The full Nelly interview runs next month in the Post-Dispatch.

Nelly releases “Brass Knuckles” June 24, featuring the Fergie-assisted single “Party People.”

Photo: Rappy Nelly, music critic Kevin C. Johnson

Photo credit: Laurie Skrivan