Nelly made his entrance wearing his trademark grin, and he was dressed as Michael Jackson. The St. Louis rapper behind “Hot in Herre” threw a 1970s disco party over the weekend to mark his 52nd birthday, with a theme borrowed from Studio 54, the famous New York nightclub of the disco years. His wife, Ashanti, posted footage from the night to her Instagram Stories on Sunday, Nov. 1, one day before his birthday.
Ashanti came as Diana Ross. It was a fitting pair. When Motown released the Jackson 5’s first album in 1969, Diana’s name was right there in the title: “Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5.” She was the star who helped introduce Michael and his brothers to the country.
Michael left fans a long list of outfits to copy. There’s the red “Thriller” jacket, the single white glove and the white suit and fedora from “Smooth Criminal.” Nelly passed on all of them. He went back to the very start of Michael’s grown-up solo career instead, and he matched the look right down to his shoes.
Fans on The Shade Room’s Instagram page had plenty to say. Some joked that the outfit looked like a Temu order, and others compared him to Jerome from the sitcom “Martin.” A few singled out the wig and the boots. “Should’ve waited 2 more years for this theme,” one fan wrote, a nod to the 54 in Studio 54. Plenty of fans just pointed out that Nelly never stopped smiling.
So which Michael did he pick? Nelly came as Michael from the 1979 “Rock With You” video. He wore a black jumpsuit covered in stripes of silver sequins and finished it with silver moon boots. Then he took a microphone and sang along to “Rock With You” while he and Ashanti danced to it together.
Nelly and Ashanti at his disco birthday party
This 9MagTV clip is a re-upload of Ashanti’s Instagram Stories from the party, with Nelly and Ashanti in costume. The on-screen captions come in at about 0:16.
The song Nelly chose has a story of its own. Rod Temperton wrote it. He was a quiet Englishman from the seaside town of Cleethorpes who played keyboards in the funk band Heatwave, and Quincy Jones brought him in to write for “Off the Wall,” the first album Quincy produced for Michael. Rod wrote three songs for it. He kept such a low profile that people later called him “The Invisible Man.”
Michael recorded “Rock With You” in December 1978. Before it reached him, the song was reportedly offered to Karen Carpenter, who was making her first solo album and turned it down. Epic Records released it in October 1979 as the second single from “Off the Wall.” Cash Box magazine reviewed it that month and called it a “soft, classy number.” By Jan. 19, 1980, it was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it stayed there for four weeks. It also spent five weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart.
The video was simple by later Michael standards. Director Bruce Gowers put him in that sparkly suit and had him sing in front of a bright laser.
Michael in the original “Rock With You” video
This is Michael’s official video, upscaled. He sings it in the striped sequin suit with the green laser beams behind him, the same outfit Nelly copied for his party.
Michael was 21 when “Rock With You” hit No. 1 in January 1980. Nelly wore the same look at 52, silver boots and all.