Nelly Fans Stream to Pay Off Rapper’s IRS Tax Debts

Fans of the rap star Nelly have been listening to his music online to help him pay a $2.4 million tax lien from the Internal Revenue Service.

Last week, TMZ reported that Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., received a tax lien in August from the IRS for $2,412,283 in unpaid taxes. That’s on top of $149,511 in unpaid state taxes from 2013 with the Missouri Department of Revenue for the St. Louis-based rapper. A writer with Spin, Brian Joseph, suggested that Spotify users stream Nelly’s music since artists receive a tiny percentage of royalties when their songs are streamed on the service. However, it would take hundreds of millions of streams to make a dent in the rapper’s tax debts.

Streams of Nelly songs reportedly increased 90 percent in the past week in response to the campaign to relieve the rapper from his tax debts, but little impact is expected on his taxes.

Late night comedians Stephen Colbert and James Corden have both been offering the rapper some free advice for paying off his tax debts in their monologues.