“Dilemma” is officially the biggest streaming hit of Nelly’s career. The 2002 R&B ballad has joined the Spotify Billions Club, becoming the St. Louis hit-maker’s first song to record 1 billion streams on the platform. “Dilemma” matches Nelly with Kelly Rowland, who also joins the Billions Club for the first time, either as a solo artist or a member of Destiny’s Child.
Released as the second single from Nelly’s blockbuster album Nellyville, “Dilemma” spent 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, replacing the album’s previous single “Hot In Herre” at the top of the chart. Nelly wrote the song with producers Ryan Bowser and Antoine “Bam” Macon, who built the beat from a sample of Patti LaBelle’s 1983 hit “Love, Need and Want You.” “Dilemma” also appeared on Rowland’s solo album Simply Deep.
Nellyville found Nelly at the top of the music industry. The album sold 715,000 units in its first week, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, where it ultimately spent four weeks. It is now certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. “Dilemma” was a major driver for the album’s popularity. In addition to its massive chart success, the song was nominated for Record of the Year at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards and won the award for Best Rap/Sung Performance. It was the last song added to the album, just days before CDs went into production.
As evidenced by the billion Spotify streams, “Dilemma” has stood the test of time. Vice critic Ryan Bassil once called it “the best R&B duet of the modern age.” The song’s hit music video—which features Nelly and Rowland as neighbors drawn to an illicit romance, mirroring the lyrical narrative—has also endured in pop culture.
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