Hashtag #SaveNelly Aims to Help the Rapper Pay Off His Federal Tax Debt

As many of you know, Nelly is facing some serious debt. Not only does the 41-year-old owe the Missouri Department of Revenue $149,511 in unpaid taxes, he was also hit with $2,412,283 federal tax lien last month. The amount is insane, but sources close to the St. Louis rapper assured everyone he was working with government to resolve the issue. We’re not sure what kind of plan Nelly is cooking up, but his loyal fan base has devised a simple-but-fun solution under the hashtag #SaveNelly.

The idea is to get as many people as possible to stream his 2002 hit single “Hot In Herre” over and over and over again. Though it sounds bizarre, it can actually help Nelly pay off his debt. Here’s how: After reports of his tax lien surfaced, Spin found out the rapper would earn between $0.006 and $0.0084 per Spotify stream. The team crunched some numbers and concluded “Hot In Herre” would need to be streamed between 287,176,547 and 402,880,500 times in order for him to rack up the money needed to pay off Uncle Sam. It’s also important to note that not all the money earned from streams goes directly to Nelly’s bank account. However, even though that's the case, the revenue from hundreds of millions of streams could still help a great deal.

You can check out some of the best #SaveNelly tweets below. And if you’re interested in helping the man out, get on Spotify and put “Hot In Herre” on a loop.