Kelly Rowland Moves Into Nellyville In The Low Key Ridiculous Video For 'Dilemma'

If you had to take 2002 and bottle it up into a nice little essence, you could probably just show someone the video for Nelly & Kelly Rowland's mega hit 'Dilemma'.

Coming right off the heels of Nelly's 'Hot In Herre' and during Rowland's break from Destiny's Child, 'Dilemma' was a much more R&B focused Hip-Hop hit than what came before for Nelly.

Anyone around at the time can attest to how ubiquitous the music video was, and for good reason. It genuinely does a great job telling the simple visual story of Rowland moving into a new neighborhood and falling for the guy across the street (even though she is already in a relationship, hence the titular Dilemma).

But if you start paying close enough attention to the details, this whole situation is kind-of insane.

We open with Kelly and her mom, played by Patti LaBelle, moving into Nellyville, where clearly Nelly would have some sort of cache (seeing as the neighborhood is named after him and all).

We see Nelly run over to say hello and get all his friends to help the new family move in. All the while, dressed in the most 5x clothes this side of a DXL.

This is where the credulity starts to go a little sideways, as we see Kelly's boyfriend roll up and it's NBA player Larry Hughes of the Washington Wizards, fresh off getting the business from an un-retired Michael Jordan and trying to look tough in the face of Nelly's omnipresent gaze.

Nelly is already letting us know that he's just waiting for the right moment to swoop in. But Kelly is actually the one being way too extra about the whole thing. She keeps returning to the line, "You don't know what you mean to me." Kelly Rowland, you do not know this man. You just met him five minutes ago (part of which was cut short by Larry Hughes).

Then there's a scene where Nelly & Kelly bump into each other at a record store and Kelly walks away after Nelly blows her a kiss. It looks like she's disgusted by this, though I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt that she was going for flustered.

The next time we see Kelly, she's made her choice (kinda, put a pin in this) and drives up to Nelly's house in the same car Larry Hughes had. Leading us to believe that she either left him or just took his car for a joyride to Nellyville.

But then we get the moment. The one thing you definitely remember this video for. Kelly Rowland grabs her Nokia 9210 Communicator and texts Nelly via Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. She drops her device in disgust at not getting a response. But as we all know, for obvious reasons, she was never going to get a response.

The video ends with some cuts between Nelly & Kelly reconciling & dancing in the street together and them bumping into each other at the movies, both with their partners in hand. I guess Kelly still has love for the 1997 McDonald's All-American.

'Dilemma' is a truly representative music video of its time. Between the clothes, technology, and even the actual people involved; it's a great little time capsule. One that has resonated over the past 20+ years thanks to the strength of its song and a handful of persnickety details that have remained alive through memes & online discussions over the ensuing years.

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