Aughts ephemera live on within Nelly’s videography—it’s where brightly colored durags and throwback jerseys are happily preserved for all time. His videography is also shrouded with mysteries, too, the largest of which has remained unanswerable: Why the hell is Kelly Rowland texting on an Excel Spreadsheet in the “Dilemma” video? (See the above photo.)
14 years after the single topped Billboard‘s Hot 100 charts, Nelly was finally questioned about this by Australian show The Project, who pressed him to laughs from the audience. “That was the thing at the time,” Nelly innocently explained. “That was the new technology at the time.” Below, watch his comments at the 3:10 mark, which is around the same time Spreadsheet-gate happened in the “Dilemma” video.
What makes the Excel Spreadsheet scene unintentionally comedic isn’t how dated the technology is. People remember those tough Nokia flip phones, T-Mobile Sidekicks, and leisure time spent playing Snake. Very few people seem to remember texting on a spreadsheet in all caps. Watch Rowland’s moment below and see if it rejiggers any memories of texting your romantically estranged boo with a spreadsheet.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mr63bjj5fSg
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