Nelly believes that dating is like taking a “test drive,” and that’s what he did with his now-wife Ashanti before sealing the deal.
The musical couple is starring in the new Peacock reality television show We Belong Together nearly two years after tying the knot. Last July, Nelly and Ashanti also welcomed their first child together, a baby boy, named Kareem Kenkaide Haynes.
But roughly 10 years before reconciling, the pair had a nasty split that resulted in some harsh feelings toward each other. Nelly, who claimed that the breakup wasn’t “one-sided,” admitted in a new interview with People that he and Ashanti needed to “grow” in order to reunite stronger than before.
“It’s about the good outweighing the bad,” the three-time Grammy winner told the outlet. “What you thought mattered a lot, once you go through other scenarios, you realize that’s not really as big of a deal as you thought it would be.”
“Or you get something that you thought you was missing, and it still doesn’t compensate or fill a void, and you’re like, ‘Damn, I thought that would mean more,’ but that doesn’t. It’s just growth,” he continued.
Nelly also compared the first time that he and Ashanti dated to taking a “test drive,” giving a nod to his new country single “Spin the Block.” The couple was first in a relationship for 10 years, from 2003 to 2013, before reconnecting at the 2021 Verzuz battle between Ja Rule and Fat Joe.
“Everybody don’t get a chance to, if you could say, take a test drive,” Nelly told People. “It’s like when people say, ‘You should always test drive a car before you buy it.’ I hate to minimize that because this is real life, so you don’t want it to feel like that.”
After Ashanti called her husband’s “test drive” remark a “good metaphor,” Nelly added that it was the “defining factor” of them getting back together.
“We had a chance to test drive a relationship to understand that, ‘Yo, that car was the best thing I had riding around that thing, man. Fire it back up, baby,'” he said.
Ashanti shared her thoughts on spinning the block in March during a chat with Revolt, saying that the spark can’t be “forced.”
“Be true to yourself. You can’t force it,” she said. “What’s meant to be will always be. Regardless of time, regardless of whatever. When it’s meant to be, it’ll be. You have to trust that. Obviously, I’m a testament to that.”
